• Open

    LibreOffice improves Microsoft compatibility with version 7.4
    If you absolutely must keep using those proprietary formats, walk this way Just over six months on from version 7.3, LibreOffice 7.4 Community has arrived, boasting improvements in Microsoft Office compatibility.…  ( 5 min )
    UK blocks sale of chip design software company to China
    Trail from Super Orange HK Holding Ltd leads back to National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund The UK government has blocked the sale of a British chip design software outfit to a Chinese company, citing national security. The move is the latest step the government has taken in its increasingly defensive stance against foreign ownership of UK technology companies.…  ( 5 min )
    Google promises to adjust search algorithm to favor 'people-first content'
    Well now there's an idea In what may be a major shift, Google plans to revise its search algorithm to rank content crafted primarily for people rather than content designed to impress web crawlers and indexing bots.…  ( 5 min )
    MariaDB buys geospacial specialist CubeWerx
    Long list of open standards contributions part of journey to REST-based GIS stack, companies say Database vendor MariaDB has forked out an undisclosed sum for CubeWerx, a geospatial data specialist, in the hope of making make these features easier to build into data-hungry applications.…  ( 4 min )
    We were promised integrated packages. Instead we got disintegrated apps
    Not to mention the severely disadvantageous subscription model Something for the Weekend  I have an app whose sole purpose is to launch another app.…  ( 8 min )
    Mouse hiding in cable tray cheesed off its bemused user
    Who knows where all those cables go anyway? On Call  Welcome once again to On Call, The Register's ongoing chronicle of IT incidents that readers have managed to survive, divert or diminish, while emerging with reputations intact.…  ( 4 min )
    Two years on, Apple iOS VPNs still leak IP addresses
    Privacy, it's a useful marketing term *Offer does not apply in China Apple has left a VPN bypass vulnerability in iOS unfixed for at least two years, leaving identifying IP traffic data exposed, and there's no sign of a fix.…  ( 5 min )
    Australian wasps threaten another passenger plane, with help from COVID-19
    A350 saved from peril by sharp-eyed ground crew Australian wasps have once again brought a passenger aircraft to the brink of peril.…  ( 4 min )
    NASA selects 'full force' for probe into UFOs
    'We're placing a high priority on it' NASA is pushing ahead to recruit a panel of experts and publish a much-awaited report on unidentified aerial phenomenons (UAPs), all with a budget of up to $100,000.…  ( 5 min )
    Red Hat OpenShift adds heterogenous clusters mixing x86, Arm
    Tech preview is Azure-only for now, adding to previous AWS Arm adventures Red Hat has delivered a tech preview of its OpenShift containerization platform that can drive clusters spanning both x86 and Arm silicon.…  ( 4 min )
    Vietnam demands Big Tech localize data storage and offices
    Mandate goes into effect October 1, but industry players will have one year to comply Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communications updated cybersecurity laws this week to mandate Big Tech and telecoms companies store user data locally and control that data with local entities.…  ( 4 min )
    Solaris is in maintenance mode – but Oracle added a significant feature anyway
    Don’t Panic if you run terabytes of RAM and need to understand a dumped snapshot Oracle's Solaris operating system remains widely used, even though Big Red more or less froze development of the product in 2018 save for regular Support Repository Updates (SRUs) that add minor updates and bug fixes.…  ( 4 min )
    The truth about that draft law banning Uncle Sam buying insecure software
    There's always a get-out clause An attempt by lawmakers to improve parts of the US government's cybersecurity defenses has raised questions – and hackles – among infosec professionals.…  ( 6 min )
    $2.8m gene therapy treatment is America's most expensive drug ever
    Sure, it's pricey, but not using it would be more expensive, says drug maker A one-time gene therapy treatment recently approved by America's FDA is gaining attention not just for its clinical value, but for its price: at $2.8 million, Bluebird Bio's Zynteglo is the most expensive drug in US history.…  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Valorant announces new Champions bundle, event pass, and Twitch drops, here's how to claim
    Over the course of the past year, multiple teams across the world have gone head to head to try and claim one of the 16 spots in the Valorant Champions Tour. This is the ultimate Valorant tournament, and will be kicking off on August 31, running until September 18. To celebrate the tourney and all those involved, Valorant is releasing a Champions 2022 bundle, a free event pass, and various Twitch and YouTube drops so that your average player need not miss out on any of the fun. First things first, the limited edition Champions 2022 bundle will no doubt go down a treat. The last Champions cosmetic we saw was for the Vandal and karambit, and it still remains one of the more popular picks among players because of it's exclusivity and slick look. This time around, we're being given a glossy Phantom that I have no doubt will be just as admired. Read more  ( 16 min )
    VG247's The Best Games Ever Podcast – Ep.13: Best game that was called a clone of another game
    My daughter has a favourite toy. It's a Squishmallow called Serene. Serene is a round-ish turquoise squirrel. If you're not into soft toys, you may not know how popular Squishmallows are, but to give you an idea... the last time I was in the local toy shop, every one of the four people in the queue to pay had hold of a Squishmallow. But the popularity of Squishmallows isn’t the point of this little story. Serene goes everywhere with my daughter and is her best friend - as much as a wannabe toddler can have a best friend. Given how Serene can sometimes be thrown from the buggy with the complete lack of foresight and comprehension of possible events that only a baby has, and the extreme love she has for her, we thought it best to buy a second Serene. "Let's buy a clone of Serene, a new one, just in case," I said to my wife while browsing the toy store and walking past the sizable Squishmallow display. Read more  ( 19 min )
    Death Stranding is coming to PC Game Pass – but definitely not Xbox Game Pass
    In an announcement directly from Antonela Pounder, global community director for 505 Games, it has been revealed that Death Stranding will be arriving on PC Game Pass on August 23, 2022. You might recall that just a few days ago, PC Game Pass shared a small teaser to Twitter for a game they were adding. Immediately, many had their suspicions that the game could be Death Stranding. Now, we know they're completely correct. Death Stranding takes place in an apocalyptic United States. When an event known as 'Death Stranding' shakes earth to it's core, a bunch of Beached Things – strange, invisible monsters – start showing up. These BT's cause havoc, so much so that the remainder of humanity is in imminent danger, and it's up to Sam Porter Bridges to travel back and forth in a bid to save everyone from extinction. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Blizzard is extremely keen to tell us how Diablo 4 isn't like Diablo Immortal
    For some reason, the Diablo 4 developers are very keen to reiterate to people that the game will not be pay-to-win, and that players will not have to spend real money in order to bolster their characters and make meaningful in-game progress. In a new quarterly update released last night, Diablo 4‘s director of product, Kegan Clark, noted that any items that can be purchased for real money in the game's shop will impact gameplay. "Nothing offered in the Shop grants a direct or indirect gameplay advantage," says Clark. "So, while many of these may look like powerful pieces of gear, they have no in-game stats." Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Diskutera - Hur ska nästa FZ-redaktör vara?
    No content preview  ( 6 min )
    Knights of the Old Republic-remaken kan ha bytt utvecklare
    Paus-ryktet kanske bara var en fråga om utvecklarbyte.  ( 6 min )
    Regiments
    FZ:s Johan Olander upptäcker att kalla kriget är stekhett, supersvårt och svinskoj.  ( 9 min )
    Efter fem år - Quake Champions lämnar early access
    Gibba gratis på Steam och pc-Game Pass.  ( 6 min )
    Nu på pc-Game Pass - Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Quake 4 med mera
    Och Quake Champions och två GAMLA Elder Scrolls är gratis i MS Store.  ( 6 min )
    Arkane Austin går igenom vad Redfall faktiskt är
    Spoiler: Ett handlingsdrivet FPS i en öppen spelvärld för solo- eller gruppspelare.  ( 7 min )
    Nu är Doom 64 och ett innehållspaket till Rumbleverse gratis hos Epic
    Helgen är räddad?  ( 6 min )
    Nu är Doom 64 och Rumbleverse gratis hos Epic
    Helgen är räddad?  ( 6 min )
    Blizzard försäkrar: Inget pay-to-win i Diablo IV
    Och som i Diablo III börjar man med en ny karaktär varje säsong.  ( 7 min )
    Rick and Morty-skaparens FPS High on Life försenas
    Squanch Games behöver mer tid för sitt kommande spel.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    YouTube thought my Steam Deck video was 'harmful and dangerous'
    Here is your daily dose of what the heck? YouTube and the mighty algorithm decided for no apparent reason, that my Steam Deck video was "harmful and dangerous".  ( 4 min )
    Witchtastic gets Steam Deck Verified after the dev made improvements
    As time goes on, more developers are tweaking their games to improve the Steam Deck experience and Witchtastic looks like a fun co-op game to try out.  ( 4 min )
    Dead Cells price hike in Argentina & Turkey due to cross-region purchases
    Motion Twin / Evil Empire have announced that Dead Cells is increasing in price in Argentina & Turkey, as it seems too many people were taking advantage of the cheaper prices from other countries.  ( 4 min )
    Capes is a gritty superpowered turn-based strategy RPG from ex-Hand of Fate devs
    Love your superhero stuff? Keep an eye on Capes, an upcoming turn-based strategy RPG full of people with superpowers.  ( 4 min )
  • Open

    Laughing In Loud
    No content preview
  • Open

    Sega packs unreleased games, new arcade ports into Genesis Mini 2
    Full 60+ game list also includes some Genesis classics with new gameplay features.  ( 7 min )
    Library’s prized Galileo manuscript turns out to be a clever forgery
    All signs point to notorious 20th-century forger.  ( 6 min )
    Review: HP’s Elite Dragonfly Chromebook is the cream of the ChromeOS crop
    Easily one of the best Chromebooks you can buy, but it could use a price drop.  ( 6 min )
    Rocket Report: Europe wants a super-heavy lifter, Starship nets launch contract
    "We are definitely seeing significant attrition. That should surprise no one."  ( 11 min )
  • Open

    Slime Rancher 2 hits early access this September
    Slime Rancher 2 will be making its way into early access via Xbox and PC on 22nd September. The sequel to 2017's Slime Rancher will continue the story of Beatrix LeBeau. This time, she will see her adventures take her across the Slime Sea to the mysterious shores of Rainbow Island. Here, she will find a multitude of "wiggly, new slimes to wrangle". You can check out a trailer for the upcoming game below. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Don't expect to see more of Starfield at Gamescom
    Bethesda has updated a blog post which previously suggested we might see more of Starfield next week at Gamescom. Fan excitment was sparked this week by word that Redfall and Starfield gameplay would be shown at a Community Get Together to be held next Friday, 26th August. "Come see Redfall and Starfield gameplay and get your hands on Fallout 76 while you're there," the blog teased. "Of course, we also have a few surprises and goodies in store for you." Read more  ( 15 min )
    1m have already flocked to Cult of the Lamb
    Cult of the Lamb has had an amazing debut. Massive Monster's indie title, which tasks players with starting their own cult "in a land of false prophets", has seen an impressive 1m sales across consoles as of yesterday. This is even more remarkable when you take into account that the game has only been out for a week. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Death Stranding coming to PC Game Pass
    Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding will be added to Game Pass for PC next week, on Tuesday 23rd August at 1am UK time. Intriguingly, this appears to be the original version of the game, rather than its more recent Director's Cut. Published by 505 Games, the PC version of Death Stranding first arrived in July 2020, around eight months after it first popped up as a PlayStation 4 console exclusive. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Ooblets coming to Nintendo Switch this September
    Nintendo Switch players will soon be able to get their hands on adorable sim Ooblets. The game is due to come to Nintendo's console on 1st September, following its stint in early access on PC (via Epic) and Xbox. "We've been working on Ooblets... for the past SIX years and it's finally reaching 1.0," the developer tweeted earlier this week, before unveiling the game's Switch debut. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Sega battling Hyenas alpha gameplay leak
    Gameplay footage of Hyenas, the next title from Sega studio Creative Assembly, has leaked on YouTube. Hyenas was announced in June and has since had three closed alphas. Anyone taking part in the alpha is required to sign an NDA. Yesterday, an hour of footage from the alpha was uploaded to YouTube. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Cult of the Lamb was not blocked from Game Pass, despite claims to the contrary
    Earlier this month, it was reported that Sony had been blocking games from going onto Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass subscription service. The type of games this was affecting was never specified, however screenwriter Gary Whitta recently claimed that Sony had paid Cult of the Lamb's developer, Massive Monster, to stop the indie-hit from appearing on Xbox's service. The game's publisher Devolver Digital has now rebuked Whitta's statement. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Blizzard really wants to reassure you on Diablo 4's monetisation
    Diablo 4 developer Blizzard has issued a lengthy blog post describing the kinds of things you'll be able to spend money on in its upcoming dungeon crawler - and things you won't. It's the latest round of reassurance from Blizzard on Diablo 4 following the controversial monetisation of its recent free-to-play spin-off Diablo Immortal, in which players have argued you can pay extortionate amounts and become more powerful. By contrast, Diablo 4 will feature a cosmetics shop and season pass - "none of which provide any pay-for-power options", Diablo 4 product director Kegan Clark said. Read more  ( 15 min )
    In praise of the video game starter island
    I can still remember my first game of PUBG. Well, kind of. I can't remember how I did out there on the battlefield, which weapons I found or how far I traveled across the map. But I can remember that starter island - where everyone spawns while the game is gathering players. I remember just being really confused by it. Where was I? Was this it? Were we off and playing? Did I need to be doing something? There were weapons scattered around - should I be using them? There were people everywhere. Should I be hiding? I am familiar with the starting island now - in fact I love it. I spend a lot of time in games that use starting islands, from Fortnite to Among Us (not really an island, that one, but you know what I mean). Read more  ( 17 min )
    What we've been playing
    Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've found ourselves playing over the last few days. This time: eternal war, cults, and a game that invokes Hungy Hungry Hippos. If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive. Yes, it's on brand for me. Yes, it's a free-to-download mobile game with microtransactions. And yes, it's unnecessarily bloated, with more resources to collect and progression gates to grind through that even the Emperor himself might have lost patience. But I have found some fun in Warhammer 40,000 Tacticus, a fast-paced turn-based strategy game in the mobile phone mould that is scratching an itch I am somewhat depressed but unsurprised to find myself afflicted with. Read more  ( 19 min )
  • Open

    Pimoroni Enviro Indoor Review: Sense and Sensor-Abilities
    How warm is it? Is the air too humid? Are there volatile organic compounds in the air? Enviro Indoor will help you find out.  ( 65 min )
    Raspberry Pi Manufacturer RS Group Ends License After a Decade
    RS Components had been a manufacturer and distributor of Raspberry Pi since its launch in 2012.  ( 60 min )
  • Open

    Thymesia has spectacular combat, but falls short of true Soulslike greatness
    Where FromSoftware's offerings weave a mysterious tale, wonderful level design, and meaningful combat into a tight package, Thymesia – like so many other Soulslikes - knows it must excel at one thing to compensate for the others. I've spent some time with the game's early levels and it perfectly captures what I'd consider to be a 'classical' Soulslike: a game that's heavily focused on The Combat Bit above all else. Does the game's combat rule? Yes, without a doubt. But will I continue playing? I'm not so sure. From what I've sampled, one strong pillar might not be enough to hold my attention for much longer. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Cursed To Golf review: a charming golf sim that's stuck in roguelike purgatory
    Golf games seem to be having a bit of a renaissance right now. From their beginnings on the fairway fringes of Flash-game forums, we now have been blessed with a handful of fun indie golf sims. We’ve seen the bizarre buffoonery of What The Golf?, the high-speed, eye-popping courses of Golf With Your Friends, and Secret Mode recently completely threw the clubs out the window and replaced them with highspeed motorcars in Turbo Golf Racing. It's safe to say that golfing games are always full of shenanigans and Cursed To Golf is no different. Playing as a golfer who has been cast into Golf Purgatory, you need to golf your way back to the land of the living, completing all eighteen holes in one roguelike run. It’s a fun premise and the game bursts with silliness and personality, but unfortunately Cursed To Golf fails to iron out certain roguelike frustrations. After mistiming a shot in the game’s final area and being sent back to the beginning (ending an excruciating four-hour run time), I truly did feel cursed. Read more  ( 20 min )
    The Batman Arkham subreddit has decreed that Batman: Arkham World exists and is cool
    I'm a big fan of shared, collective funtimes, so I must lay flowers at the feet of posters on the Batman Arkham subreddit (maybe not flowers; like, bat-themed knives and big stompy boots. I don't know, what does Batman like?). A couple of weeks ago, with no new mainline Arkham game since 2015's Arkham Knight, they started discussing Batman: Arkham World, a fourth game in the series that came out in 2021. Except, of course, it does not exist. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Quakecon sees Wolfenstein 3D, Quake 4 and more Bethesda classics come to Game Pass
    Quakecon started yesterday and to celebrate Microsoft have added another swathe of id Software and Bethesda games to both PC Game Pass and the Microsoft Store. That's not all, either, as there's also an id-themed freebie over on the Epic Games Store this week, and more Bethesda games going cheap in various sales. Here's everything you need to know about what's going on where. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Quake's enhanced edition now includes the classic Capture The Flag mod
    There was a time in multiplayer first-person shooters when Capture The Flag modes were as ubiquitous as Battle Royales. Also like Battle Royales, it was a mod that was responsible for that ubiquity: Threewave CTF for Quake. Now you can more easily play Threewave CTF again. Bethesda announced during Quakecon today that Threewave Capture The Flag was now part of their enhanced Quake release, with nine maps, the grappling hook and new improvements. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Apple varnar för säkerhetsbrist i Iphone
    Efter att säkerhetshål upptäckts i Apples enheter uppmanas användare att uppdatera sina telefoner så fort som möjligt.  ( 5 min )
    Geforce Now får högre upplösning i Chrome
    Nvidias spelstreamingtjänst Geforce Now har uppgraderats och prenumeranter har nu möjlighet att spela i 1440p via webbläsaren.  ( 5 min )
    Samsung förbereder DDR5-minne på 1 TB
    I början av nästa år ämnar Samsung att spränga terabyte-gränsen på en enskild minnesmodul.  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Apple M2 vs. AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U Performance In Nearly 200 Benchmarks
    Last week I published initial Apple M2 vs. AMD Rembrandt vs. Intel Alder Lake Linux benchmarks using Asahi Linux and Arch Linux across the board. For ending out this week, here is a follow-up article looking more closely at the Apple M2 in the MacBook Air against the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U "Rembrandt" within the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen3.  ( 5 min )
    Radeon ROCm 5.2.3 Released With Ubuntu 20.04.5 Support, Various Library Fixes
    AMD has put out another point release in the ROCm 5.2 series for their "Radeon Open eCosystem" GPU compute stack for Linux...  ( 4 min )
    Mesa 22.2-rc3 Released With Many Fixes To TURNIP Vulkan, D3D9 Frontend
    The third weekly release candidate of Mesa 22.2 is now available for testing ahead of the stable debut in the coming weeks...  ( 4 min )
    Tow-Boot Downstream Of U-Boot Updated With Improved SMBIOS Support
    Tow-Boot 2021.10-005 is now available for this open-source project that describes itself as "an opinionated distribution of U-Boot."..  ( 4 min )
    GCC 12.2 Compiler Released With 70+ Bug Fixes
    Out this morning is version 12.2 of the GNU Compiler Collection...  ( 5 min )
    KDE Gear - KDE Applications - 22.08 Released
    For what used to be known as part of the KDE Software Compilation... Then most recently the straight-forward KDE Applications name to refer to the set of official KDE applications... Now KDE Gear is the current name for the official set of KDE applications. KDE Gear 22.08 is out today as the newest collection of KDE apps...  ( 4 min )
  • Open

    How to Create and Switch Workspaces in Linux Mint
    Workspaces are a great way to stay organized and productive. Here is how to create and use workspaces in Linux Mint Cinnamon.  ( 26 min )
  • Open

    Dirk Eddelbuettel: RcppArmadillo 0.11.2.3.1 on CRAN: Double Update
    Armadillo is a powerful and expressive C++ template library for linear algebra and scientific computing. It aims towards a good balance between speed and ease of use, has a syntax deliberately close to Matlab, and is useful for algorithm development directly in C++, or quick conversion of research code into production environments. RcppArmadillo integrates this library with the R environment and language–and is widely used by (currently) 1005 packages other packages on CRAN (as celebrated in this blog post on passing 1000 packages from just four days ago), downloaded nearly 26 million times (per the partial logs from the cloud mirrors of CRAN), and the CSDA paper (preprint / vignette) by Conrad and myself has been cited 488 times according to Google Scholar. This release brings together tw…  ( 4 min )

  • Open

    For the first time ever, more people watched streaming TV than cable
    The long-predicted shift finally happened.  ( 5 min )
    If everyone bicycled like the Danes, we’d avoid a UK’s worth of emissions
    Lower emissions and lower obesity would more than offset the added traffic deaths.  ( 6 min )
    Loathsome anti-vax group run by RFK Jr gets Meta permaban—finally
    CHD says the ban came "without warning." Meta says it followed many violations.  ( 5 min )
    Hands-on: Logitech’s tiny G705 wireless mouse is more versatile than it looks
    Decent power for traveling or small hands.  ( 6 min )
    FTC sued by firm allegedly selling sensitive data on abortion clinic visits
    The firm hopes stopping all health data collection will block the FTC's lawsuit.  ( 7 min )
    Motorola takes on the Pixel 6a with a 144 Hz mid-range phone
    The Moto Edge has a super-fast display, but can the MediaTek SoC keep up?  ( 5 min )
    Old laptop hard drives will allegedly crash when exposed to Janet Jackson music
    Problem has been assigned an official CVE ID, despite lack of specifics.  ( 5 min )
    Zoom patches critical vulnerability again after prior fix was bypassed
    MacOS security researcher was able to bypass the fix issued just last weekend.  ( 4 min )
    Netflix’s ad-supported plan likely to have another drawback: No video downloads
    Text found in iOS app code says plan won't allow downloads for offline viewing.  ( 6 min )
    Hundreds of cosmetic MultiVersus mods stop working in apparent crackdown
    Twitch streamers also hit for playing with modded characters like Jesus Christ.  ( 5 min )
    Ring patched an Android bug that could have exposed video footage
    After a chain of attacks, security firm got access to locations and recordings.  ( 5 min )
    Buttons beat touchscreens in cars, and now there’s data to prove it
    Swedish publication Vi Bilägare quantified the problem with new tests.  ( 7 min )
    Europe is seriously considering a major investment in space-based solar power
    Such an initiative would require a 200-fold increase over current space-lift capacity.  ( 5 min )
    Embracer acquires rights to Tolkien-related IP, teases new LOTR films
    Limited Run Games has also been acquired, along with five worldwide game studios.  ( 7 min )
    TikTok vows to close loophole letting users skirt ban on political ads
    The app is adding internal teams to review influencer posts for violations.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Intel's Core i5-13600HX Raptor Lake Mobile CPU Benchmarked: Faster Than Alder Lake
    First CrossMark results of Intel's Core i5-13600HX leak.  ( 59 min )
    Early AGESA Versions Responsible For Possible Ryzen 7000 Delayed Release
    AMD is reportedly dealing with serious AGESA microcode issues on its upcoming AM5 platform, which might delay Ryzen 7000's release window to late September.  ( 59 min )
    Samsung: 1TB DDR5 RAM in 2024, DDR5-7200 in 2025
    Samsung envisions 1TB DDR5 modules to arrive in 2024, DDR5-7200 to hit the market in 2025.  ( 65 min )
    Lenovo’s Lawyers Prompt Framework to Change 3D Printed Case
    Framework is changing the power button on its open source case design after a challenge from Lenovo claiming that it infringes upon Lenovo's Legion trademarks.  ( 59 min )
    Intel Factories in China Shut Down to Conserve Electrical Power
    Intel factories in China's Sichuan Province, have been shutd down in order to reduce the strain in the electrical grid.  ( 59 min )
    RTX 3070 Laptop Deals: All the Models You Can Buy Right Now
    We help you find RTX 3070-powered gaming laptop deals.  ( 63 min )
    Samsung 990 Pro Is the Center of a PCIe Mystery
    New evidence surrounding Samsung's 990 Pro SSD suggest it will be either a PCIe 4.0 or PCIe 5.0 drive.  ( 59 min )
    Raspberry Pi Backup System Saves Data to USB Drive
    ThinkLearnDo has created a Raspberry Pi-powered keychain holder that can back up data overnight to a USB thumb drive.  ( 59 min )
    Intel Core i9-13900KF QS Benchmarked at 6.1 GHz Using Liquid Cooling
    The Core i9 Raptor Lake chip jumps from being 39% to 59% faster than its Alder Lake predecessor thanks to the application of an improved cooling solution.  ( 63 min )
    Ubuntu Announces Compatibility With Second RISC-V System
    Ubuntu has a new home: the VisionFive RISC-V board from StarFive.  ( 59 min )
    GeForce Now Gets 1440p, 120 FPS Game Support for Chrome and Edge
    Nvidia updates its Chrome and Edge browser implementation of GeForce Now to support 1440p and 120 fps gameplay for members of the RTX 3080 plan.  ( 59 min )
    Intel's Raptor Lake Reportedly Has 350W Turbo Mode, But Only on New Motherboards
    New Intel 700-series motherboards to enable extreme turbo boost levels for Intel's 13th Generation Core processors.  ( 59 min )
    Bitcoin Mining Company Sells 26,200 Rigs to Eliminate $67M Debts
    Big crypto miners have racked up massive debts, but their hardware is still worth a lot of cash. However, SDIG is well placed for market swings as it also owns power generation plants too.  ( 59 min )
    Dell Pro Webcam (WB5023) Review: Perfect Plug-and-Play in 2K
    The Dell Pro webcam offers 2K QHD resolution and performs well without any image adjustments or software tweaks.  ( 67 min )
    Cooler Master GM27-FQS Review: Accurate Color and High Performance
    Cooler Master adds to its high-performance gaming monitor stable with the GM27-FQS. It’s a 27-inch QHD/IPS panel with 165 Hz, Adaptive-Sync, HDR10 and a wide gamut. With accurate color and smooth video processing, it’s ready to play.  ( 68 min )
    Janet Jackson's 'Rhythm Nation' Crashes Hard Drives
    A bizarre situation in which a Janet Jackson music video can crash a laptop has gained official recognition.  ( 59 min )
    Roccat Kone XP Air Review: Packed with RGB and Buttons
    The Roccat Kone XP Air does a pretty good job at drawing attention to itself with its eye-popping RGB and ergonomic design, but its $170 price tag is steep.  ( 63 min )
    Best RAM for Gaming: DDR4, DDR5 Kits for 2022
    Here are the best RAM kits we’ve tested: computer memory ideal for gaming, video editing, and graphics-heavy applications.  ( 74 min )
    Scammers Distribute Fake Microsoft Office USB Sticks With Malware
    Fraudsters send fake Microsoft Office USB drives to gain PC access and demand ransom.  ( 60 min )
  • Open

    Diablo 4 will have a season pass, cosmetic shop and years of post-release content
    Diablo 4 isn't due for release until next year, but in their latest quarterly update Blizzard have laid out their plans for post-release updates. Those plans include seasonal content, a paid season pass, and an in-game cosmetics shop. It's everything you'd expect (or exhaustedly resign yourself to) in a live service game. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Beacon Pines' verb-collecting storybook adventure launches September
    Several of my favourite games are basically just choose-your-own-adventure books and Beacon Pines makes that connection more explicit. It's an adventure game where you explore environments and unlock new words, which you can then deploy during pivotal story moments when the camera pulls back to reveal the whole game takes place on the pages of a book. It looks great, and it now has a release date: September 22nd. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Get an RTX 3060, RTX 3070 or RTX 3080 Ti graphics card for below UK RRP at Ebay
    Ebuyer's Ebay store and the BANK15 code are teaming up again for more low-as-all-heck prices on a range of Nvidia RTX graphics cards. We've already covered quite a few of these this week, I know, but these are genuinely historic price drops on cards that have been almost impossible to find at a reasonable price for most of their lifetime. Today we've got three further selections for you: an RTX 3060, an RTX 3070 and an RTX 3080 Ti. Let's take a look! Read more  ( 17 min )
    Dungeons & Dragons is getting an official virtual tabletop powered by Unreal Engine
    Over the past couple of years, software for playing tabletop roleplaying games remotely has become more popular than ever - for obvious reasons. Not content with people using third-party software such as Roll20, Wizards Of The Coast have announced today that they're making their own Dungeons & Dragons virtual tabletop using Unreal Engine 5. It looks pretty swish. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Grab 16GB of RGB-encrusted DDR4 RAM for a bargain price at Ebay UK
    We've already covered a few deals using Ebay's current 15% off code, but there are so many items covered by this promotion that we're drawing from the well once more. This time, we found some good deals on brand new DDR4 RAM, offering you either a dual-channel 2x8GB kit or a single 16GB stick for under £60. To get these discounted prices, use code BANK15 at the checkout. Read more  ( 17 min )
    QuakeCon returns today as a digital-only event, here are some highlights
    This year’s QuakeCon begins today, and it’s once again being staged as a digital-only event. The organisers say they’re committed to being an in-person event again in 2023 but for now there’s still some intriguing streams to tune into starting from 6pm BST/7pm CEST/10am PST. Read on for more info and our personal highlights on what’s happening at QuakeCon 2022. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Vampire Survivors’ latest patch crowns new character Queen Sigma today
    Earlier this month, arcade roguelike Vampire Survivors added a cheat menu of ‘spells’ in its Not One patch. They’re going not-one better with the 0.11.100 patch today, christened The All-In-One, by adding in more cheats, a new character and two more weapons. Witness the arrival of Queen Sigma in the fancy trailer below. Read more  ( 16 min )
    The Electronic Wireless Show episode 198: the best last stands in games
    Today's topic for The Electronic Wireless Show podcast comes from listener Alastair Fakelastname, who suggested we talk about some of our favourite brave last stands in video game history. We do discuss what constitutes a last stand for the purposes of our discussion, but not until quite some time into the podcast. Many things are thrown into the ring, from RTS classics to famous boxart. Read more  ( 16 min )
    A Janet Jackson song had an uncanny power to crash laptops
    I have a new favourite bug: Janet Jackson's 1989 certified choon Rhythm Nation had an uncanny ability to crash certain old laptops. This was nothing to do with the file itself; even being near another laptop playing the song could cause a crash. Turns out, one of the sonic frequencies in Rhythm Nation coincided with the natural resonant frequencies of a particular laptop hard drive, making it crash. Amazing. Perfect. A perfect bug. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Ludum Dare creator's clocklike open-world RPG goes into early access in autumn
    Side quests sure are fun, aren’t they? Newly announced indie open-world RPG All Hail Temos eschews a main story to double-down on those distracting tangents, in a fantasy world not too dissimilar from games in Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls series such as perennial favourite Skyrim. Delve into the blocky fantasy realm by watching the teaser trailer below. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Amazing new Doom mod replaces enemy sprites with voxel models
    I often grumble about remasters and 'HD texture packs' making classic games look worse than the original (heck, I don't even play Quake with newfangled texture filtering). And yet, I am delighted by a new Doom mod which replaces all the sprites for enemies and items with new 3D forms. The secret is voxels, carefully recreating those old 2D sprites in 3D pixels. It's pretty great, in a 'makes the game actually look the way I had remembered it' sort of way. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Hand Of Fate devs’ new tactics game is XCOM with superheroes
    If you were fond of roguelike deck-building RPG Hand Of Fate and its sequel then you might be interested in the newly revealed superhero tactics RPG Capes. It’s in development at Spitfire Interactive, a freshly founded studio made up of former Hand Of Fate devs. None of the characters in the trailer seem to be wearing their blankets around their shoulders, but it’s worth a watch all the same. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Dead Island 2 leaks after Amazon listings reveal new details and 2023 release date
    Just like the zombies that’ll presumably shamble around in it, Dead Island 2 keeps clinging on to life. Newly posted product listings for the console versions on Amazon US have shed some dying light – sorry – on the eternally-in-development horror game, first announced eight years ago at E3 2014. Here’s that infamous trailer once again, just for old times sake. Read more  ( 17 min )
    The DioField Chronicle is shaping up to be real-time Fire Emblem meets Final Fantasy
    Square Enix have made a vast array of RPGs over the years, but rarely have they ventured into the realm tactics and strategy games. A couple of big names come to mind, the obvious one being Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre if you count their PSP remake of Quest's SNES original, and most recently, Triangle Strategy on the Switch. Outside of that, though, it's all a bit barren, which is why the real-time tactical sword-swinging of their upcoming strategy RPG The DioField Chronicle is such an interesting landgrab for them. To say they're pushing into new territory would be an understatement. Happily, judging by the sizable first chapter of the game (currently available to play for free on Steam until the game's release on September 22nd), it's clear that Square Enix and their development partners at Lancarse have a lot of smart decisions here. With its focus on individual hero characters instead of nameless military units, mixed in with the magical pizazz and flashy summons of its Final Fantasy games, The DioField Chronicle could just be the Fire Emblem-shaped hole PC players have been looking for. Read more  ( 21 min )
    Embracer Group buy the whole of Middle-Earth, plus seven more games companies
    It’s a running gag that Swedish conglomerate Embracer Group regularly buy up large chunks of the games industry, but now they’ve only gone and bought a whole universe. Embracer have acquired the rights to J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit properties from long-time owner The Saul Zaentz Company. That includes games, along with movies and other media content, folks. Ol’ Embracer have also acquired seven companies within the gaming realm. Read more  ( 17 min )
  • Open

    Former Hand of Fate devs unveil "gritty" turn-based superhero RPG Capes
    Spitfire Interactive, a new studio established by key members of the team that worked on acclaimed deck-building dungeon-crawler Hand of Fate, has unveiled Capes, a "gritty" new turn-based superhero RPG coming to Steam next year. Capes takes place in a world where, during the Golden Age of superheroes, the villains finally managed to get the upperhand, completely wiping out humanity's protectors. Two decades on, however, in a dystopian city where superpowers are outlawed, a new generation of superheroes begins to rise with the goal of finally ending the reign of evil once and for all. In gameplay terms, that action manifests as turn-based tactical battles where players deploy their super-powered units around the map, either travelling on-foot or via teleportation, to fight goons and supervillains, and rescue reluctant citizens. Read more  ( 15 min )
    PowerWash Simulator players can now help gaming and mental health research while they spray
    PowerWash Simulator developer FuturLab has launched a new initiative that'll enable players to opt-in and help independent researchers from Oxford University's Internet Institute gather data for its research on gaming and mental health. From today, Steam players that select the 'research-edition – Research Edition 2022' drop-down option under PowerWash Simulator's Properties > Betas menu will gain access to what FuturLab calls a "one-of-a-kind anonymous research study centred around the well-being of PowerWash Simulator’s players [that] also aims to deliver insights into the larger discourse of gaming and mental health." FuturLab says two types of anonymous, de-identified data will be collected from players that opt-in to the PowerWash Simulator's Research Edition: 'base telemetry', which includes player progress and other general gameplay activities that'll be provided to the researchers for analysis, plus a second type made up of responses given directly to researchers by players. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Quake 4, Wolfenstein 3D, and more join PC Game Pass as QuakeCon begins
    QuakeCon returns today as another digital-only event, and Microsoft is getting the celebrations started a little early with the announcement that a fresh batch of Bethesda and id Software titles - including Quake 4 and Wolfenstein 3D - have now joined Game Pass for PC. Additionally, a couple of games are currently free on the Microsoft Store. Starting with Xbox Game Pass on PC, five new titles have joined the line-up as of today. Alongside Quake 4 and Wolfenstein 3D, today sees the arrival of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire, and The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard. Additionally, subscribers can unlock all champions in Quake Champions via a special Game Pass Perk. And on the subject of Quake Champions, it's currently available free on the Microsoft Store, alongside two more QuakeCon freebies - The Elder Scrolls: Arena and The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall. Also on the Microsoft Store, Heretic: Serpent Riders, Hexen: Beyond Heretic, and Hexen: Deathkings are now available for sale. Read more  ( 15 min )
    What does Embracer's Lord of the Rings buyout mean for Middle-earth games?
    This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we're talking The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and Middle-earth in general - as the rights to Tolkien's world are gobbled up by game publisher Embracer. It's another huge get for the Swedish conglomerate, which owns an increasingly enormous share of the video games industry. It also means Embracer will soon be in charge of the Middle-earth film and TV rights - and it's already talking about a fresh set of spin-offs and sequels. But what does this mean for Lord of the Rings video games? Will Embracer put some/many of its 100+ studios to work on Middle-earth projects? And what kinds of games would we like to see - and by whom? Tom Phillips, Victoria Kennedy, Ishraq Subhan and Liv Ngan discuss. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Doom 64 is currently free on Epic Games Store
    You can currently get your hands on Doom 64 for free through the Epic Games Store. You could say this is one hell of a saving. Rumbleverse - Boom Boxer Content Pack is also up for grabs as a freebie at this time. These deals are both available until 25th August. After that, Ring of Pain will make its entry. Read more  ( 15 min )
    MultiVersus players with mods can't boot the game
    MultiVersus players using mods are reportedly unable to launch the game following the most recent patch. PC players were using mods to add unofficial characters to the roster. But it appears Warner Bros is not pleased with the growing modding scene, having issued takedown notices for videos featuring mods in the game. Now it appears the game is up, with Warner Bros adding security features to stop the game running at all with mods. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Marvel's Spider-Man: the PC port plays beautifully on Steam Deck
    We described Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered on PC as a patch or two away from perfection and our opinion hasn't changed! In our initial embargo day impressions piece, we also talked about how well the game runs on Steam Deck - and today we're going to go a little deeper, pushing the Valve handheld to its limits in terms of matching the PS4 and PS5 versions - and why we ultimately ended up dropping back settings for a more optimal experience. Our final optimised settings for the Deck were also deployed on the new AyaNeo Air - a smaller, more compact PC handheld with an OLED display. It hasn't got the raw horsepower of the Deck, but somehow it's still capable of a perfectly reasonable Spider-Man experience. First things first - we've got to tackle the hot potato that is the 30fps cap we reco…  ( 21 min )
    Elden Ring sales surpass 16.6m worldwide
    Elden Ring is continuing its strong reign. The latest figures from publisher Bandai Namco reveal that the fantasy epic has now topped 16.6m sales worldwide (thanks, Gematsu). This figure includes both digital and physical copies of the game. In May, Elden Ring had sold 13.4m copies since its launch towards the start of the year. This means that, in just three months, another 3.2m units have been shifted. To borrow from Ed, Elden Ring is clearly doing GRReat! Read more  ( 15 min )
    Warzone is making Modern Warfare unplayable for some on PS5
    Some PlayStation 5 owners are reportedly struggling to play 2019's Call of Duty Modern Warfare reboot on their consoles. When attempting access any of the three components of the game - Campaign, Multiplayer and Spec Ops - players are greeted with a message stating that the required data packs are not installed. That's when the problems start. When players follow through the prompts to download the data packs, they are confronted with a message stating that their installation was "suspended." There's no other suggestion as to what's causing this. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Shin Chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation - The Endless Seven-Day Journey review - the best kind of doing nothing
    I've been watching the genuinely still very good Phineas and Ferb for the first time in over a decade recently, a show that is essentially about doing absolutely everything you can on summer vacation. The absurdity of it is wonderful, but if we reduce it to just 'doing a LOT while it's summer,' it's not that relatable to me. Which is why it's slightly ironic that I've been playing Shin Chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation, a game where you do almost nothing, something I find reflects me much better. And it lets you do nothing in the most soothing ways possible. Before I go into why a game where you don't do much is somehow a good thing, we need some important context. Shin Chan might be familiar to you if you, like me, watched it on Cartoon Network as a kid, but the Summer Vacation series is one you're less likely to be familiar with. Boku no Natsuyasumi (or My Summer Vacation) originally appeared on the first PlayStation in 2000, but unfortunately was never released in English. It was made by developer Millenium Kitchen, who also made Shin Chan: Me and the Professor, and is quite simply a game about a young boy exploring a countryside village. You collect bugs, bottle caps, and meet the locals, and not much else. And while I've not had the opportunity to play the game due to the language barrier, it looks like exactly my shit. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Nintendo to shrink Switch boxes to boost shipment sizes
    Nintendo will lose up to 20 percent from its Switch console boxes in order to squeeze more units into each shipment. A new report by Nikkei states the change will help Nintendo shift greater stock volumes more quickly, and also for less money. Vooks, which translated the report, calculated that Nintendo had already shrunk the Switch's box by around 14 percent for its more recent Switch OLED version. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Embracer confirms AAA project has switched studios, following report of KOTOR trouble
    Earlier in the year, a report stated the Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic remake was "in serious trouble". So much trouble, in fact, the remake was said to be "delayed indefinitely". Following on from this, Embracer - parent company of developer Aspyr - has revealed that one of its AAA projects has transitioned to another studio within the group. While which project this is was not named in the company's Q1 interim report, informed speculation points to this being the troubled KOTOR remake. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Just Cause developer spent two years on cancelled Iron Man game
    Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios was working on an Iron Man game for two years before the project was cancelled. In an interview with MinnMax, Avalanche Studios co-founder Christofer Sundberg said that the developer was approached by Disney and Marvel in 2012 and began work on the game that year. However, things quickly went awry. According to Sundberg, Disney had shortened the development time by one year, which increased the development budget since the studio would need to hire 70-80 people to finish the game in time. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Anti-Pride Spider-Man Remastered mod removed
    A mod which replaced the Pride flags with USA flags in Spider-Man Remastered has been removed from mod websites. The modding community for Spider-Man Remastered has been pretty active since the game's release on PC last week, creating mods to change the pigeons into rats and all sorts of other fun character switches. However, one mod which caught attention has been more divisive. The mod in question replaced any Pride flags that appeared in the game with the US flag. Uploaded on 15th August to Nexus Mods, it was removed by site staff on 17th August. A similar mod appeared on ModDB, which has also been removed. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Activision's Crash Bandicoot developer teasing new project
    Toys for Bob, the Activision-owned development studio behind its Skylanders series, is teasing a new project. In recent years, Toys for Bob has found fresh fame developing the Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy and Spyro Reignited Trilogy, before tackling the well-received Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time. Since then - like virtually every other Activision studio - Toys for Bob has been assisting on Call of Duty development, specifically on Warzone. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Dead Island 2 story details, release date and screenshots leak
    A set of images from Dead Island 2, and the game's apparent release date, have leaked online. A new listing (which has since seen key details removed) was spotted on Amazon last night, with the release date stated to be 3rd February, 2023. As shared by Wario64, the listing also included story details about the upcoming game. It will reportedly take place in Los Angeles, "from the verdant suburbia of Beverly Hills to the quirky promenade of Venice Beach". Read more  ( 15 min )
    Sea of Thieves - a few big buts in an ocean of booty
    If you ever want to give yourself a mild existential crisis, take a glance at the stats for your favourite game. It turns out I've spent a solid 40 days of my life sailing the Sea of Thieves since its launch back in 2018 (I’ll admit to that being considerably less than I was expecting), which might go someway to explaining why, four and a half years on, its vast oceanic expanse feels like a second home. Given how much of a sucker I am for a swashbuckling pirate yarn, there was a certain inevitability to my love affair with Sea of Thieves, but pretending it was a foregone conclusion would do a huge disservice to developer Rare's astonishing work imbuing its game with such distinctive charms. Even at launch - when, for all its fancy pirate dressing, its endless roiling oceans and multitude of beautifully wrought islands, it was, at heart, a pretty simple game of tug of war - there was a special kind of magic to Sea of Thieves that made it so much more than its component parts. Its core loop was, and to a certain extent still remains, a simple one, where every treasure gained was treasure waiting to be stolen, and every treasure stolen was treasure waiting to be retrieved. But its power was in the peripheral details, where every journey existed on the thrilling edge of chaos as its emergent additions - the pervasive threat of other players, a passing storm, a kraken attack, or perhaps even all three - coalesced around its functional core to create always unpredictable yarns. Read more  ( 23 min )
    Embracer Group acquiring rights to Lord of the Rings and Hobbit IP, plus more
    Embracer Group is to buy Middle-earth Enterprises, which will give the Swedish conglomerate the rights to JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. In a press release, Embracer discussed its process of buying Middle-earth Enterprises, although it did not disclose the sum of this deal, citing "commercial reasons" for this decision. This deal will mean that Embracer will own the rights to motion pictures, video games, board games, merchandising, theme parks and stage productions relating to Tolkein's works. Read more  ( 15 min )
  • Open

    Googlers demand abortion searches ‘never be saved or treated as a crime’
    Staff remind CEO 'don't be evil' and treat workers equally Hundreds of Googlers this week demanded CEO Sundar Piachi do a better job protecting people seeking abortions by refusing to hand over to law enforcement any customer data that could be used to build a criminal case, and extending the health benefits full-time employees enjoy to contract workers.…  ( 6 min )
    DIY 5G specialist FreedomFi acquired by Nova Labs
    Aiming to make Helium the standard for decentralized networks DIY 5G network outfit FreedomFi has been bought by Nova Labs, the founding team behind the Helium Network.…  ( 5 min )
    Tesla expands Powerwall-to-grid program to cover most of California
    Utility companies are offering $2 per kWh for power stored in battery tech More Tesla Powerwall owners in California are getting the option to help fight blackouts – and get paid for it – as thecompany expands its virtual power plant (VPP) program to new areas of the Golden State. …  ( 5 min )
    Microsoft brings more Arm64 support and an updated expiry date to Dev Channel Windows
    Best before September 15, 2023 Microsoft has demonstrated that it really does care about Windows on Arm with a new Dev Channel build for Windows that brings native Arm64 support to its camera app as a low-impact start.…  ( 5 min )
    China, US relations further soured by CHIPS Act
    Beijing says legislation designed to interfere with its own efforts to build homegrown semiconductor industry China has reacted negatively to the passing of the US CHIPS Act, saying that the program is anti-competitive and aims to block the Middle Kingdom's efforts to build up its own semiconductor industry.…  ( 5 min )
    Google blocks third record-breaking DDoS attack in as many months
    46 million requests per second network flood comes as attacks increase by more than 200% compared to last year Google says it has blocked the largest ever HTTPS-based distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack in June, which peaked at 46 million requests per second.…  ( 6 min )
    Quantum computing startup IonQ lands on Microsoft's Azure
    Yep, that’s the same company a short-seller is alleging is a ‘useless toy’ Quantum computing startup IonQ now has a second system available on Microsoft's Azure Quantum cloud platform, claiming it will open quantum systems to a wider audience.…  ( 5 min )
    Google Workspace Individual arrives in Europe
    It's taken Mountain View a year to refine the service for the Continent It has taken just over a year, but Google has finally made its Google Workspace Individual product available to European customers.…  ( 4 min )
    Tech analyst Forrester finds enterprise software is recession-proof
    As mission-critical nature of software supports prices, users also find reason to invest Despite inflation hitting a 40-year high and expected recessions, growth in enterprise software spending is expected to plow on at a steady 12 percent, according to figures from Forrester.…  ( 5 min )
    The CHIPS Act won't end US reliance on foreign foundries
    For all the billions poured in, is a 'Made in America' sticker worth it? Analysis  With all the fanfare and foundry expansions around the signing of the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the semiconductor shortage will soon be over, and the US will emerge as a silicon powerhouse rivaling that of Taiwan's TSMC and South Korea's Samsung and SK Hynix.…  ( 6 min )
    AI chip adds artificial neurons to resistive RAM for use in wearables, drones
    'Even on a small coin battery, it could run for more than 10 years' claims researcher A newly published research paper describes a compute-in-memory (CIM) chip that combines artificial neurons with resistive RAM (RRAM) so that the AI model weights can be stored and processed on the same chip.…  ( 8 min )
    South Korea cracks down on unlicensed foreign crypto businesses
    Financial Services Commission also creates a digital assets task force South Korea's Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU) said on Thursday it has identified 16 foreign crypto businesses it will investigate for operating unregistered.…  ( 4 min )
    Skyrora fires up second stage of XL rocket
    First stage hot fire and launch from UK soil in 2023 Brit rocketeers Skyrora have perched a second stage of its orbital class Skyrora XL atop a stack of containers and performed a successful static fire test of the engine.…  ( 4 min )
    Cloudera launches SaaS platform for the lakehouse crowd
    And it IS a crowd – marketplace is busy. Customers get choice of analytics engine and storage layer in open approach Former Hadoop stalwart Cloudera has announced a fully managed software as a service (SaaS) version of its data platform which it claims is more open than rivals in the over-crowded market.…  ( 5 min )
    Google teaches robots to serve humans – with large language models the key
    Is this it? The robo-butler dream is coming true? Video  Google's largest AI language model is helping robots be more flexible in understanding and interpreting human commands, according to the web giant's latest research.…  ( 5 min )
    We tested all the Ubuntu remixes for resource usage so you don't have to
    Which flavors are the lightest and the heaviest disk and memory-wise? The Reg FOSS desk has lined up the official Ubuntu remixes to see which ones hog the most or least of your computer's resources.…  ( 11 min )
    NASA has MOXIE, but rivals reckon they can do better for oxygen on Mars
    Food and fuels, too? Totally not sounding like a Star Trek replicator Last year, NASA produced oxygen on Mars. Now, scientists experimenting here on Earth may have found a much more efficient method of doing so for future missions. The resulting equipment could be used to produce the necessary materials for human colonization, too.…  ( 5 min )
    Microsoft to drop price for Teams Rooms, add free Basic tier for SMBs
    Hardware still required – plus tolerance for visiting the office and remote collaboration Microsoft has advised its partner community that it will soon drop the price it charges for Teams Rooms, and add a version of the product aimed at small business.…  ( 5 min )
    Ransomware attack on UK water company clouded by confusion
    Clop gang thought it hit Thames Water – but real victim was elsewhere A water company in the drought-hit UK was recently compromised by a ransomware gang, though initially it was unclear exactly which water company was the victim.…  ( 6 min )
    Deluge of of entries to Spamhaus blocklists includes 'various household names'
    Nastymail tracking service blames sloppy sending practices for swelling lists of dangerous mailers Spam-tracking service Spamhaus reported Tuesday that some of the world's biggest brands are getting loose with their email practices, causing its spam blocklists (SBL) to swell significantly.…  ( 4 min )
    Janet Jackson music video declared a cybersecurity vulnerability and assigned a CVE
    Another reason not to play 1989’s ‘Rhythm Nation’ – it messes with hard disk drives The music video for Janet Jackson’s 1989 song “Rhythm Nation” has been recognised as a cybersecurity vulnerability after Microsoft reported it can crash old laptop computers.…  ( 5 min )
    Two thirds of DNS queries for IPv6 hosts sent to Chinese resolvers fail, researchers find
    Network boffins can't say why, suggest not using the worst providers China's DNS resolvers fail two thirds of the time when handling queries for IPv6 addresses, and botch one in eight queries for IPv4, according to a group of Chinese academics.…  ( 4 min )
    That was fast: MetaGuard emerges as an 'incognito mode' for the metaverse
    As if the VR giants will let that stand – worth a try, though Imagine for a moment that you wanted to spend time in what Meta solipsistically calls the metaverse, a keiretsu of interactive cartoon panoramas powered by commercial surveillance and payment persuasion.…  ( 8 min )
    Google, Apple squash exploitable browser bugs
    Chrome flaw has public exploit, WebKit hole actively abused along with kernel escalation Google has issued 11 security fixes for desktop Chrome, including one bug that has an exploit for it out in the wild.…  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    GCC & LLVM Ready With x86 __bf16 Type Support
    Following optional "__bf16" support being added to the x86-64 psABI as a special type for representing 16-bit Brain Floating Point Format for deep learning / machine learning applications, the GCC and LLVM compilers have now landed their __bf16 type support...  ( 5 min )
    Linux Update Acknowledges Your Old Intel CPUs Might Be Vulnerable To MMIO Stale Data
    Made public back in June by Intel was the MMIO Stale Data vulnerabilities. The disclosure noted affected Intel products range from Haswell up through Rocket Lake on the client side or Xeon Scalable Ice Lake servers. However, pre-Haswell Intel CPUs might be impacted too while the Linux kernel to this point was incorrectly stating older CPUs are "not affected" by MMIO Stale Data...  ( 5 min )
    Qt Group Expanding Beyond Just The Toolkit Into More QA Software With New Acquisition
    While the Qt Group (most recently known as The Qt Company) is known for its Qt toolkit and related Qt Creator integrated development environment, Qt Design Studio, and related software centered around their cross-platform toolkit, they have acquired German software maker Axivion GmbH as they expand their product portfolio beyond just Qt...  ( 5 min )
    Intel Xeon Platinum 8380: 2021 vs. 2022 Performance For Ubuntu, Clear Linux, CentOS Stream
    With Intel Xeon Sapphire Rapids expected to make more of a splash coming up, it's a good time to revisit the Intel Xeon Platinum 8380 "Ice Lake" performance to see how the Linux software performance has evolved since last year's launch. In this article are benchmarks of the dual Xeon Platinum 8380 server from May 2021 with CentOS Stream, Clear Linux, and Ubuntu compared to fresh installs now of those latest Linux distribution releases.
    LibreOffice 7.4 Released With Support For WebP, Many Other Improvements
    LibreOffice 7.4 is out today as the latest major update to this open-source, cross-platform office suite. This leading free software office suite now supports WebP images as well as a variety of other improvements to its various components...
    LLVM Compiler Finally Gets A Tuned Scheduler Model For Intel Alder Lake P
    While Intel is normally fast at contributing improvements for new hardware to the open-source GCC and LLVM/Clang compilers, just today and ahead of the approaching Raptor Lake launch has a proper scheduler model finally been added for existing Alder Lake P processors...  ( 5 min )
    AMDVLK 2022.Q3.3 Brings Some Performance Tuning For Linux Gamers
    AMD has published their latest routine snapshot of AMDVLK, their official open-source Radeon Vulkan driver for Linux systems that is derived from their internal cross-platform Vulkan driver sources and is an alternative to the unofficial but popular Mesa Radeon Vulkan "RADV" driver...  ( 5 min )
    High Performance Mold Linker Begins Adding macOS, CMake Build Support
    Last year marked the release of Mold 1.0 as a modern, high-speed linker alternative to the likes of GNU Gold and LLVM LLD. Mold was started by Rui Ueyama who previously worked on the LLVM linker. Mold has continued seeing new features added and out today is version 1.4.1 where "alpha" support for macOS is added and also beginning to work on CMake build system integration...  ( 4 min )
    Krita 5.1 Released With JPEG-XL Support, XSIMD For Better Paint Performance
    Krita 5.1 is out today as the newest evolutionary update to this leading open-source, cross-platform digital painting program...  ( 4 min )
    MGLRU Patches Picked Up By Andrew Morton's "mm-unstable" Branch Ahead Of Linux 6.1
    Multi-Gen LRU "MGLRU" is one of the most exciting low-level kernel innovations in recent time and is already used by Google's Chrome OS and Android as well as having proven itself in various other downstream kernel builds. MGLRU is planned for upstreaming in Linux 6.1 and in preparation for that, Andrew Morton has now queued those patches into his "mm-unstable" branch for further vetting...  ( 5 min )
    NTFS3 File-System Driver Sees Late Refactoring For Linux 6.0
    NTFS3 as the modern Linux kernel read/write file-system driver for NTFS that was open-sourced by Paragon Software is seeing some late code refactoring and fixes for Linux 6.0...  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Utskällda Warcraft 3: Reforged har fått rankat läge
    Ny patch ute.  ( 6 min )
    Elden Ring har nu sålts i 16,6 miljoner exemplar
    Sköldpaddspåven gillar't.  ( 6 min )
    Quakecon börjar klockan 19 i dag
    Massa Bethesda-spel i heldigitalt, streamat event.  ( 6 min )
    Spana in en vacker videogenomgång av kommande A Plague Tale: Requiem
    Uppföljaren till den omtyckta AA-titeln från Asobo Studio.  ( 6 min )
    Dead Island 2 har dykt upp på Amazon, med potentiellt släppdatum
    Och fyra nya skärmdumpar såväl som en beskrivning.  ( 6 min )
    A Plague Tale: Requiem - ny trailer ger en översikt
    No content preview  ( 6 min )
    Se teaser för Dying Light 2:s försenade dlc, Bloody Ties
    Stort avslöjande på tisdag nästa vecka.  ( 6 min )
    Cult of the Lamb
    Att predika och ge blodsoffer till gudarna - vem hade kunnat ana att det skulle vara så här kul?  ( 9 min )
    Tomas Brolin blir Fifa 23-superhjälte när EA och Marvel slår sina påsar ihop
    Skurkar - frukta Tornadon from Näsviken!  ( 6 min )
    Quiz – Känner du igen de klassiska peka och klicka-äventyren?
    I veckans quiz får dina äventyrsgener bekänna färg.  ( 6 min )
    Tolkien får svensk ägare? Embracer vill köpa Lord of the Rings och The Hobbit
    Köper även Tripwire, Tuxedo Labs med flera. Och släpper kvartalsrapport. Puh!  ( 7 min )
    Just Cause-utvecklarna jobbade en gång i tiden på ett Iron Man-spel
    Men företagspolitik satte käppar i hjulet.  ( 6 min )
    Släppdatum för New Tales from the Borderlands kan ha avslöjats på Amazon
    Såväl som spelets omslag och beskrivning.  ( 6 min )
    Strålande vackra Planet of Lana försenas till nästa år
    Och bekräftas även till Game Pass.  ( 6 min )
    Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed har fått släppdatum i höst
    18 oktober försöker vi vinna som spöke eller spökjägare.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Get a couple treats in the new Linux & Thrills bundle on Steam
    Hanoi Studios have today put up their second multi-developer bundle on Steam, with a primary focus on highlighting studios that support Linux.  ( 4 min )
    Covert Critter is basically Metal Gear Solid with lizards
    Sneaking out at some point, Covert Critter is an upcoming stealth action game that will have Native Linux support. It's also pretty much Metal Gear Solid with animals.  ( 4 min )
    There's a new bundle with some Paradox Interactive titles
    The weekend is coming closer and you want some new games? Check out the small Paradox Interactive bundle from Humble Bundle with a few of what they've published.  ( 3 min )
    Embracer Group to swallow up Tripwire, Tuxedo Labs, The Lord of the Rings
    Embracer Group are quite terrifying. The amount of power they have in the gaming industry is simply insane and now they're swallowing up more studios and even the full rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.  ( 4 min )
    SteamOS 3.4 Beta to update the Arch Linux base, new Steam Deck updates out now
    Valve has announced three things recently including multiple updates that are out now for the Steam Deck, plus a quick tease of what's to come for a Beta of SteamOS 3.4.  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    New Tales from the Borderlands coming in October, according to Amazon
    New Tales from the Borderlands is set to be released October 21, according to a listing on Amazon. The listing has since been removed, but luckily the internet is faster than a speeding finger hitting delete, and Gematsu was able to grab all the details. For starters, there will be a pre-order incentive called the Adventure Capital Pack that comes with cosmetics for the characters Anu, Octavio, and Fran, It also comes with 10,000 in-game currency as well as an FL4K Vaultlander collectible for use in-game. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Marvel's Spider-Man PC update brings improvements to DLSS, ray tracing
    Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered was released last Friday, and Insomniac Games and Nixxes Software have released a first small patch with multiple fixes and improvements. According to the developers, the teams are working on the next patch that will be more substantial and consists of bug fixes, improvements, and additional features, based on the feedback received. This patch fixes various ray-tracing-related crashes, improves Windows version check to prevent false positives, makes visual improvements to HBAO+, and fixes the issue where ray-traced reflections in stainless steel were rendered distorted. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Midnight Fight Express review: the superb Game Pass brawler that taps into your inner John Wick
    Brawlers haven’t seen as much moving and shaking as other genres in recent years. They seem to be mostly stuck in a phase of trying to recreate and perfect what came before, and not so much push things forward. Punching, kicking, and grappling are easy to enjoy in most of them – but few really feel like they came out in our modern era, and fewer yet want you to be the star of your action movie quite like Midnight Fight Express. I’ve had my eye on Midnight Fight Express since before it even had an official title. Back in the beginning, solo developer Jacob Dzwinel would share brief GIFs of cool stunts and beat-downs, and everyone would lose their minds. I remained skeptical; many games look sharp in carefully-edited trailers, and anyone good enough at a game’s combat can produce gold. Read more  ( 22 min )
    To celebrate QuakeCon 2022 10 games from id Software and Bethesda are coming to PC Game Pass
    QuakeCon 2022 kicks off today, and to celebrate, id Software and Bethesda PC Classics are coming to PC Game Pass. You can expect more than 10 PC games covering FPS and RPG titles as well as a sale on select titles. Coming today with PC Game Pass are Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Quake 4, Wolfenstein 3D, An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire, and The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard. You can also unlock all Champions in Quake Champions via a Game Pass Perk. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Elden Ring sales top 16.6 million copies worldwide
    Bandai Namco has released its consolidated financial results for the first quarter of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023, and the report notes a rather high number of Elden Ring sales. According to the results, the FromSoftware title has sold over 16.6 million digital and physical units combined worldwide (via Gamebiz and Gematsu). The figure is quite a jump from May when the company reported 13.4 million units were sold within the first month of availability. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Pingu meets Elden Ring thanks to this fan-made Unity project
    Remember Pingu? The kids claymation program that was on TV years ago, where the lovable penguin Pingu went out his daily life eating fish and getting yelled at by his dad? Thanks to the work of one Unity developer - Adrian Mendez - Pingu has found a new home far from the arctic as a boss in an Elden Ring inspired project uploaded to the creator’s channels for the world to see. In the short video (embedded below) you can see a gargantuan Pingu break through the earth draped in red light. With a deep “Noot noot” he quickly raises a flipper and slaps the player character to death in a single strike in a scene eerily familiar to those with some time invested into Elden Ring. Tragically, this is not a mod we can experience for ourselves. Instead, Mendez built the scene from the group up in Unity, writing in the description of the video: “This is not a game, just a little project. Sometimes I'm bored…” As for the inspiration for this short but sweet vid, Adrian points to a music mix titled ‘Pingu: NOOT NOOT Theme Song but it's DARK SOULS BOSS MUSIC’ which alters Mozart’s Lacrimosa to better reflect a boss theme suitable for the beloved bird. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Lord of the Rings, Killing Floor and more gobbled up by Embracer Group
    Embracer Group, known for an ever-growing collection of video game studios and IP, has swallowed up even more as news that Lord of the Rings and Middle Earth has now fallen under the Embracer umbrella. This means that any new games, television shows, or other types of media that release within Tolkien’s world will do so under the giant burning eye of Embracer Group. The higher ups at Embracer Group have also shopped around and grabbed a handful of other notable video game companies, including Killing Floor developer Tripwire Interactive (who also published Chivalry 2 in 2021). The developers of Teardown — Tuxedo Labs — have also been acquired. They’ve also gone and grabbed Limited Run Games! That last one might sound familiar to those with a taste for fancy physical video game releases, as they’ve been creating limited special editions of titles for years now. All in all, it’s a big haul for Embracer, who seem to be inching closer and closer to swallowing up the entire industry every month. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Pokémon World Championships: Full schedule and Pokémon GO Twitch codes
    The Pokemon World Championships has finally returned to an in-person event in London, and all of the action throughout the weekend will be streamed live on Twitch. That isn't all that there is to be excited about either, given that there are going to be multiple Pokemon GO code giveaways during the stream too. The championships have already started, with things kicking off at 9am BST on Thursday 18 August. However, if you haven't had the time to tune in yet, don't fear; the event, and stream, will be running until Sunday, 21 August. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Dead Island 2 has a release date, according to Amazon leaks
    Dead Island 2 was initially announced all the way back in 2014 at E3, and after having been in development for quite the amount of time, it appears that the game may finally have a release date. A recent tweet from user Wario64 revealed that a brand new listing for Dead Island 2 was on Amazon, revealing a release date, platforms, and lengthy description for the game. As ever, all leaks are to be taken with a pinch of salt, and this release date could very well be a placeholder, but for now, Dead Island 2 could be arriving as soon as February 3, 2023. Read more  ( 17 min )
  • Open

    Netflix reklamabonnemang verkar sakna offline-tittande
    Kod i Netflix IOS-applikation indikerar att streamingtjänstens kommande reklamfinansierade abonnemang saknar möjlighet att ladda ner filmer och serier.  ( 5 min )
    Quiz: Medelålders mikrodatorer
    Commodore 64 firar 40 år och då passar det bra med ett quiz om gamla mikrodatorer.  ( 5 min )
    Corsairs nya SSD når hastigheter på upp till 10 GB/s
    Bolagets kommande SSD-enhet MP700 ska tack vare en ny kontrollerkrets med stöd för PCI Express 5.0 kunna nå sekventiella läshastigheter på 10 000 MB/s.  ( 6 min )
    Embracer vill ha rättigheterna till Sagan om ringen
    Svenska speljätten Embracer vill köpa upp Middle-earth Enterprises, som äger rättigheterna till Sagan om ringen och Bilbo – En hobbits äventyr.  ( 6 min )
    Krönika: Commodore 64 fyller 40 år
    Commodore 64 firar 40 år. Har någon annan dator betytt så mycket för framtiden? Chefredaktören delar med sig av lite nostalgi och minnen.  ( 8 min )
    Intel Arc A380 billigare än Radeon RX 6400
    Om mindre än en vecka finns Intel Arc A380 att köpa i Nordamerika, med en prislapp som stannar en bit under den jämförbara rivalen från AMD.  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Untitled
    No content preview  ( 2 min )

  • Open

    Airbnb turns its anti-partying tech on American lodgers
    Looking to book a large house on a weekend? You'll have to jump through a few hoops Pleased with the "success" of a pilot program in Australia, Airbnb is bringing its "anti-party technology" to the US and Canada. …  ( 5 min )
    Software developer cracks Hyundai car encryption with Google search
    Top tip: Your RSA private key should not be copied from a public code tutorial A developer says he was able to run his own software on his car infotainment hardware after discovering the vehicle's manufacturer had secured its system using keys that were not only publicly known but had been lifted from programming examples.…  ( 6 min )
    After 7 years, long-term threat DarkTortilla crypter is still evolving
    .NET-based malware can push wide range of malicious payloads, and evades detection, Secureworks says A highly pervasive .NET-based crypter that has flown under the radar since about 2015 and can deliver a wide range of malicious payloads continues to evolve rapidly, with almost 10,000 code samples being uploaded to VirusTotal over a 16-month period.…  ( 6 min )
    Rocket Lab to search for signs of life in the clouds of Venus
    As promised, Peter Beck is sending a Photon next year. Because he can Rocket Lab's Peter Beck is sending a Photon spacecraft carrying a small probe to Venus, marking the culmination of a childhood ambition for the CEO.…  ( 5 min )
    Attention Microsoft-oriented Linux devs: .NET 6 is on Ubuntu 22.04
    Linux distro announces the availability of Microsoft tooling on Jammy Jellyfish Ubuntu and Microsoft have brought .NET 6 to the Ubuntu repositories, meaning that you can install it without adding any extra sources to the OS.…  ( 5 min )
    TikTok wants your trust around US midterm elections data
    Misinformation's a concern, but Chinese media giant's own data privacy practices also have people worried TikTok has joined Twitter in publishing new US midterm misinformation rules, with considerable crossover in scope and style.…  ( 5 min )
    SOFIA observatory's last hurrah set back by damage from high winds
    Boeing 747-based platform now back in California with almost a month to go before science operations end The doomed SOFIA observatory has made an earlier-than-planned return from New Zealand as the Boeing 747-based platform prepares to enter its final month of operations.…  ( 4 min )
    Cloud and datacenters start to feel the slowdown amid spiking energy costs
    While enterprises are spending more on infrastructure than ever before, what goes up must come down The datacenter industry may be starting to feel the effects of the economic slowdown, leading to further impacts on IT vendors and other suppliers, according to reports, while operators in the UK in particular are feeling the pain from rising energy costs.…  ( 5 min )
    Excel @ mentions approach general availability on the desktop
    @CEO, that macro looks sus, amirite? Microsoft's Excel is to continue its march to be the coolest software kid on the block as @ mentions move closer to general availability for the desktop version.…  ( 4 min )
    UK launches 'consultation' with EU over exclusion from science programs
    Billions in funding at stake as PM hopeful Liz Truss says bloc 'in breach of agreement' The UK government has launched formal consultations with the EU over the failure to secure its inclusion in the EU's €95.5 billion ($97.6 billion) research funding program since the island nation left the world's richest trading bloc.…  ( 5 min )
    NASA uses occult means to spot tiny moon orbiting asteroid
    Lucy probe is five years away from getting a closeup of Polymele's satellite NASA scientists working on the Lucy mission, humanity's first exploration of the "Trojan" asteroids that orbit Jupiter's Lagrange points, have found a moon around one of the asteroids the probe will visit.…  ( 5 min )
    There's no place like GNOME: Project hits 25, going on 43
    Desktop environment celebrates milestone birthday with a beta The two original developers behind the GNOME project started work 25 years ago, and the 43rd version of their brainchild is nearly here.…  ( 5 min )
    Modeling software spins up plans for floating wind turbines
    Saaaaandia, where the wind comes sweeping 'cross the sea … A novel offshore wind turbine design has been waiting for the right modeling software to come along to help make it a reality, and scientists reckon they've finally built it.…  ( 5 min )
    Mozilla finds 18 of 25 popular reproductive health apps leak data
    Scary in post-Roe America, and Poland, and far too many other places It's official: your period and/or pregnancy tracker will probably share your data with law enforcement. And they might even do it on purpose.…  ( 8 min )
    Australian court overturns 'Google is a publisher' decision
    Precedent essentially meant that search results could be considered defamatory, which is dumb Australia's High Court has overturned the 2020 decision that search results pointing to news stories make Google a publisher.…  ( 4 min )
    UK hospitals lose millions after AI startup valuation collapses
    Two trusts saw nearly $18 million go up in smoke when Sensyne Health was delisted from AIM Two NHS hospitals in the UK have lost nearly £15 million ($18 million) between them due to the collapse in value of an AI startup.…  ( 5 min )
    NASA wants a hundredfold upgrade for space computers
    Does it hope to run Doom on the Moon or something? NASA has awarded a $50 million contract to Microchip Technology, the microcontroller giant, to develop next-generation processors that will enable space computers to be 100 times faster than they currently are.…  ( 5 min )
    Russian military uses Chinese drones and bots in combat, over manufacturers' protests
    Testimonials from Russian generals not welcomed by DJI or Unitree Robotics Russia's military has praised civilian grade Chinese-made drones and robots for having performed well on the battlefield, leading their manufacturers to point out the equipment is not intended or sold for military purposes.…  ( 5 min )
    Elon Musk ‘buying Manchester United’ football club
    Results are rubbish on Earth, but Mars United could be undisputed champions Rocketry, energy, automotive, AI, tequila, tunneling and (maybe) social media entrepreneur Elon Musk has proclaimed his intention to buy Manchester United — the organization often cited as the world's most supported football club.…  ( 4 min )
    Open source VideoLAN media player asks why it's blocked in India
    Rubbishes suggestions poisoned clones or ancient malware are worthy reasons for ban Developers of the open source VideoLAN media player have started sniping at India's government over an apparent block on the project's website.…  ( 5 min )
    DARPA seeks a few good AI coders to help America find its own rare minerals
    There's some pocket change in it for you, if you can crack this nut DARPA – the US government's boffinry nerve center – is offering up to $10,000 to programmers who can whip up some AI to help find rare earth minerals on our home world and ease US supply constraints of critical materials needed by the energy and defense industry.…  ( 6 min )
    The trade ban that wasn't: US allows 94% of restricted tech exports to China anyway
    谢谢 美国! US Commerce Department can make all the noise it wants about limiting tech exports to China, but it is reportedly doing little to actual stem the flow of components and equipment.…  ( 5 min )
    RubyGems now requires multi-factor auth for top package maintainers
    Sign-on you crazy diamond RubyGems.org, the Ruby programming community's software package registry, now requires maintainers of popular "gems" to secure their accounts using multi-factor authentication (MFA).…  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Update Chrome now to patch actively exploited zero-day
    It's the fifth Chrome zero-day patched by Google this year.  ( 4 min )
    Apple reportedly plans iPhone and Apple Watch event for September 7th
    New chips, new cameras, and the death of the iPhone mini are all possibilities.  ( 5 min )
    Today’s best deals: Amazon Fire HD tablets, Google Pixel 6 phones, and more
    Dealmaster also has the Xbox Series S, 8BitDo gamepads, and board games.  ( 9 min )
    Linking to news doesn’t make Google liable for defamation, Australia court rules
    High Court finds Google isn't a publisher, says "a hyperlink is merely a tool."  ( 6 min )
    Review: We Are OFK is stylish, subversive TV disguised as an indie game
    A modern, thoughtful update to the visual novel concept for disaffected Gen Z.  ( 6 min )
    New macOS 12.5.1 and iOS 15.6.1 updates patch “actively exploited” vulnerabilities
    Kernel and WebKit bugs can allow arbitrary code execution on Apple's devices.  ( 4 min )
    First official teaser for Wednesday is deliciously “Burtonesque”
    "The ambition of the show was to make it an eight-hour Tim Burton movie."  ( 7 min )
    CDC to restructure after COVID failure, “confusing and overwhelming” guidance
    Cultural, structural changes to shift focus from scientific publishing to public health action.  ( 5 min )
    Google might give the Pixel tablet a 64-bit-only build of Android
    64-bit-only mode promises better performance and security.  ( 5 min )
    AMD will announce Ryzen 7000 CPUs August 29. Here’s everything we know about them
    Ryzen 7000 and Zen 4 will be a big overhaul for AMD's successful Ryzen CPUs.  ( 5 min )
    No more deadly ragers at Airbnb rentals—or so the company hopes
    Pilot program reduced banned parties in Australia by 35 percent, company says.  ( 5 min )
    iOS VPNs have leaked traffic for more than 2 years, researcher claims
    VPNs on Apple mobile devices reportedly keep connections open and expose data.  ( 6 min )
    US chipmakers hit by sudden downturn after pandemic boom
    Intel, Micron set to cut capital spending despite new law aiming to boost production.  ( 5 min )
    Rimac Nevera first drive: An entirely new level of hypercar performance
    It’s more than just a showcase of the company's latest EV technology.  ( 6 min )
    Rocket Lab will self-fund a mission to search for life in the clouds of Venus
    "Breakthrough science is possible."  ( 6 min )
    Solving the rock-hard problem of nuclear waste disposal
    Finland avoided some of the mistakes made elsewhere and opened its waste repository.  ( 6 min )
    Anti-vaccine activists giddily celebrate as poliovirus spreads in NY
    Anti-vaccine org calls dip in childhood vaccination a pandemic "silver lining."  ( 6 min )
    Chrome “Feed” is tantalizing, but it’s not the return of Google Reader
    It's not that Google doesn't like RSS, it just wants RSS to look like Google.  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Turn any Thunderbolt-equipped laptop into a gaming powerhouse with this £93 GPU enclosure
    Thunderbolt graphics card enclosures are one of the coolest bits of kit you can get, I think. Open up this metal box, put a graphics card inside, and suddenly any PC or laptop you connect to it via Thunderbolt gets a substantial upgrade in gaming prowess. These docks used to cost around £200 or £300, but recently we've started to see radically more affordable options - and today we've reached a new low-water mark. The Lenovo Legion BoostStation can handle GPUs up to 300W (think an Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti or AMD RX 6800 XT), and is available for just £93 when you use the code BANK15 to knock 15% off the price at Ebay. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Revitalise an old PC with a 480GB SSD for less than £30
    Do you still have a laptop or desktop in your life running off a hard drive? Right now you can pick up a comfortably-sized 480GB SATA SSD for less than £30, thanks to a discount code available at Ebuyer's Ebay store. Use code BANK15 to drop the price of a cheap and cheerful Adata SU630 SSD from £35 to £29.78, and marvel at the speed and responsiveness improvement you'll see on machines that were previously running on mechanical hard drives. I performed an upgrade using a similar drive on my brother's old laptop, and it breathed new life into a machine almost ten years old. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Boyfriend Dungeon celebrates its 1st anniversary with free DLC
    Dating sim dungeon-crawler Boyfriend Dungeon is marking its one-year anniversary with the free Secret Weapons update, out today. The DLC adds a fresh dungeon to delve into, along with three new weapons to romance the scabbards off. Gaze starry-eyed at the new update’s trailer below. Read more  ( 16 min )
    One Night Stand dev's next game is a Miiverse-inspired visual novel
    The solo developer behind the excellent visual novel One Night Stand has revealed their next game project today, and it's quite possibly the perfect cross-section of all my interests. It's called Videoverse, and is described as a narrative adventure above love and friendship, inspired by Nintendo's now defunct social network, Miiverse (which all Wii U and 3DS owners know is the single, most wholesome thing to have ever existed in video games). Have a watch of the teaser trailer below. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Inkbound is an upcoming turn-based roguelike from the Monster Train devs
    Developers Shiny Shoe are best known for their roguelike deckbuilder Monster Train, which Matt Cox slapped a Bestest Best badge onto in his review. And I got an early look at their upcoming game Inkbound, a co-op roguelike that ditches the usual realtime room-clearing for turn-based battling. From what I've seen, it looks like it has potential. Read more  ( 17 min )
    We Are OFK review: an emotional music biopic that’s a bit too Silicon Valley
    Luca Le Fae has had it. His work as a writer for Leviathan Games, one of the biggest game developers on the planet, may pay well, but it’s creatively unfulfilling. A fateful encounter with his old acquaintance, Jey Zhang, at a party may just provide Luca with the escape he has been looking for. Jey, a successful music producer, remembers Luca as an incredible songwriter and asks him if he has any samples he could send her. Suddenly the unthinkable, a single, an EP, perhaps even actual stardom, seems within Luca’s grasp, but life has a tendency to get in the way even when you’re ready to take the chance of a lifetime. We Are OFK can be described as a 3D visual novel or a mildly interactive five-part TV series you just happened to buy on Steam. The first two episodes are available on launch day, with episodes three to five releasing weekly after the game's initial release. Each one comes with its own opening, which really sells the feeling of catching a new episode of a miniseries each week. With each episode, you follow the story from a different band member's point of view, from their initial decision to be band-adjacent to taking their first wobbly steps in promoting themselves as artists. Joining Luca on his journey are pianist Itsumi Saito, who works in social media management at Leviathan, and Luca’s housemate Flores, an audio-visual effects artist. Read more  ( 19 min )
    Raise Legendary Pets and earn cookies in Lost Ark’s August update
    Free-to-play Korean MMO Lost Ark is getting a new update, Under The Arkesian Sun, on August 24. This update welcomes Legendary Pet status, with useful perks that can buff your max HP, and a new spot in the Stronghold called the Pet Ranch. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Vault images emerge from the set of Amazon’s Fallout TV show
    New set images have leaked from the production of Amazon’s Fallout TV show, and they appear to show the inside of Vault 32. There’s also a nice bit of propaganda that reads “The outside world can never hurt you” and shows a superheroic Vault Boy deflecting nukes with a shield. How very Fallout. Read on to take a look at some of the images below. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Spare a thought for Neon Blight, a cyberpunk Moonlighter-like that came out just after Neon White
    Heard joke once: man goes to doctor. Says he's depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain. Doctor says, "Treatment is simple. Great game Neon White is out now. Go and play it. That should pick you up." Man bursts into tears. Says, "But doctor... I am Neon White. No, wait. What did you say? Did you say white or blight? Oh, white, oh, okay." Read more  ( 15 min )
    QUBE 10 years on: still a great puzzle game, and it's about to get one heck of a glow-up
    Time has never been very kind to QUBE. The first-person puzzler first began life as a university project in the late 00s, but by the time it finally launched commercially in early 2012, it was almost universally written off as nothing but an okay Portal clone. In fairness, there was a lot working against it. Like Portal, it was set in a largely white, sterile testing facility, and while it didn't involve flinging boxes through portals, each one of its puzzles did revolve around manipulating brightly coloured blocks to progress to the next room. The one major thing it was lacking, and probably a large part of why it never really stacked up to Portal at the time, was a GLaDOS-sized villain. QUBE's story would come later, in the 2014 Director's Cut, which added an entire script, voice-acting and a revamped musical score to give Toxic Games' puzzler a bit more, well, shape. Even with all those extra flourishes, though, the Director's Cut was still the same QUBE puzzles from before, leading many to write off the update yet again as a slight improvement on the original, but nothing to get too excited about. Now, in 2022, QUBE is getting a fancy 10th Anniversary Edition that rebuilds both versions of the game from the ground up, while also adding an entirely new sector that doubles the length of the game. And I'm telling you: please don't write off QUBE for the third time in its life. It deserves better than that. Read more  ( 21 min )
    Hand Of Fate devs’ new tactics game is XCOM with superheroes
    If you were ever fond of roguelike deckbuilding ARPG Hand Of Fate and its sequel then you might be interested in the newly revealed superhero tactics RPG Capes. It’s in development at Spitfire Interactive, a freshly founded studio made up of former Hand Of Fate devs. None of the characters in the trailer seem to be wearing their blankets around their shoulders, but it’s worth a watch all the same. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Tower Of Fantasy is an MMO gacha game that can't match Genshin Impact's polish
    Tower Of Fantasy is a free-to-play MMO gacha game, the sort of game that implores you to spend in-game currency on lootboxes in the hopes you'll build a particularly powerful collection of anime people. Genshin Impact wrapped this business model up in a surprisingly excellent open world RPG, that Graham called one of the best games of 2020. Tower Of Fantasy pulls from a neighbouring gacha vending machine, except that its mixture of MMO, realtime combat, and lootboxing isn't wrapped up in as consistent a package. Read more  ( 20 min )
    Valve celebrate SteamVR bug squashing with giant scans of real, perished bugs
    Valve have launched the SteamVR 1.23 update, and to mark the occasion, they’re letting you… look at high-quality scanned models of genuinely deceased insects? That they found? I guess??? Key technical improvements to SteamVR include multiple crash fixes, smoother controller animations and new extension support for the OpenXR platform; the full patch notes are on Steam. But the update also adds a new SteamVR Home setting that – and I quote, with emphasis Valve’s - "showcases CT scans of actual dead bugs we found lying on the ground outside our office." See? The Valve Index isn’t just for playing Half-Life Alyx, eh. Read more  ( 16 min )
    What's better: a level 1 rat, or Alone In The Dark's jacket inventory?
    Last time, you decided that nude mods are better than going into meats and guts. Oh sure, you're brave with your votes, but not one single commenter was brave enough to address the subject of honking their pud. Cowards. If you won't expand, we have to move on. This week, I pose a question of squeaky critters versus a squeaky coat. What's better: a level 1 rat, or Alone In The Dark's jacket inventory? Read more  ( 19 min )
    People seem to think Death Stranding is heading to PC Game Pass
    The Twitter account for Microsoft’s PC Game Pass service decided to change their profile picture, and coyly drew attention to its familiar looking mist-covered rocky backdrop with a tweet. "Sometimes we just like a good landscape picture," they said enigmatically. If you’re familiar with the Game Pass Twitter accounts, they like to do the flippant social media thing and tease followers. Well, this latest attempt has people speculating that the Sony-trademarked Death Stranding is about to hit PC Game Pass. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Fact check: Tony the Tiger’s milk-cooled PC would work, somewhat
    Tony the Tiger – the neckerchiefed mascot of Kellogg’s Frosties – is becoming a VTuber, with some kind of heavily sponsored Twitch stream scheduled for this Friday in which “he” will play “a popular battle royale game” with some other livestreamers. I’m not very interested in this, to be honest, but I am curious about the “milk-coolant PC” that Tony’s avatar will be using to get the W’s and build creepy parasocial relationships with viewers. Could such a PC, liquid-cooled by a dairy product, actually function? Read more  ( 16 min )
    MMO Tower Of Fantasy cracks down on server wait times and cheats
    Recently launched sci-fantasy gacha MMO Tower Of Fantasy is trying to tackle server queues and cheats, the developers have promised. In a message posted to the official site, Tower Of Fantasy’s devs Hotta Studio say they’ve now implemented increased server caps and improved server recommendation logic for PC. There’s also a queue timer, if you find your feet tapping while you’re waiting to join. You can watch the game’s launch trailer below if you missed it last week. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Grounded's latest test update adds a new way to share worlds
    Miniaturised survival game Grounded doesn't have dedicated servers, but the latest update offered up for public testing contains a new feature that'll help. It's called "Shared Worlds", and it allows Grounded worlds to be stored in the cloud so that anyone that world is shared with can host the game. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Dying Light 2 teases first story DLC Bloody Ties in new trailer
    Techland has shared a brisk tease of Dying Light 2: Stay Human's long-awaited first story DLC, confirming it to be titled Bloody Ties - and hinting at its setting - in a tantalising new trailer. Bloody Ties - the first of two bits of story DLC so far confirmed to be on the way as part of Dying Light 2's five year journey of post-launch support - was originally expected to launch in June but Techland eventually delayed its release to September for additional development. Much is still unknown about what it'll bring, but we do have a few hints based on previous official teases. According to lead designer Tymon Smektała, for instance, it'll run "parallel to the main story" and will focus on "a specific place outside of the Villedor city limits". Read more  ( 15 min )
    Amazon leak says Tales from the Borderlands follow-up out this October
    A fleeting Amazon listing has provided fresh details on New Tales from the Borderlands, the (newly monikered) Gearbox-developed follow-up to Telltale Games' sublime 2014 episodic adventure of almost the same name, suggesting it'll launch for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PS5, Switch, and PC on 21st October. The original Tales from the Borderlands (simultaneously both the best Borderlands title and the best Telltale game, and I'll hear no more about it) charted the genuinely funny - and, by the time it reached its fifth-episode denouement, surprisingly touching - adventures of Hyperion employee Rhys (played by Troy Baker) and Pandoran con-artist Fiona (Laura Bailey) as they attempted to locate and open one of Borderlands' legendary Vault. With developer Telltale having shut its doors in 2018 - and given the relative commercial failure of the original game - it seemed like a sequel might never come to pass. However, Borderlands developer Gearbox surprised everyone back in April when it announced that a follow-up wasn't just in the works but would be out by the end of the year. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Blizzard details Overwatch account merging ahead of cross-progression launch
    Ahead of Overwatch 2's early access launch in October, Blizzard is giving existing Overwatch players the opportunity to begin merging their various Overwatch 1 accounts as part of its preparations for the sequel's new cross-progression feature, and it's shared an FAQ on the process so players can start the transition now. Cross-progression, which was confirmed for Overwatch 2's release https://www.eurogamer.net/overwatch-2-launches-as-a-free-to-play-early-access-title-in-october, enables Overwatch players to continue their progress, and use any acquired cosmetics, across any platform using a single account. As such, those players that currently hold multiple accounts across several systems now have the opportunity to merge them into one. As of yesterday, 16th August, all players with an Overwatch account on Xbox, PlayStation, or Switch will be prompted identify, select, and confirm which accounts they want to merge next time they log into the game. This requires linking to a Battle.net account (which is mandatory for Overwatch 2 anyway) so players will need to create one, if they haven't done so previously, to compete the process. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Boyfriend Dungeon Secret Weapons DLC out today for free
    Boyfriend Dungeon's DLC has been surprise released today, just after the game's one year anniversary. The free DLC was announced back in June but without a release date. The Secret Weapons update includes a new dungeon and new dateable weapons, including Dr. Holmes the Whip designed by CEO and creative director at Unseen Inc., Ikumi Nakamura (former director of Ghostwire Tokyo). Read more  ( 15 min )
    We Are OFK review - frothy pop music meets likeable teen drama
    The concept album has been around for decades as a way for musicians to focus their work on a central theme. But what if the concept album was actually a video game? That's what We Are OFK is attempting to achieve, though it's not the first attempt. Björk's Biophilia album from 2011 came with an interactive app, while Sayonara Wild Hearts (2019) was a music video game that lasted as long as an album and warrants repeat plays. With We Are OFK, Team OFK has created a visual novel that contextualises an EP, detailing the story of its fictional band. And the music is set to be released officially, delivered by its anime band members Gorillaz-style. As a visual novel it offers likeable teen drama with welcome representation, but as an interactive music game it disappoints. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Pokémon Center plagued by queues despite pre-booking system
    London's latest Pokémon Center pop-up shop has been plagued by queues on its opening day - mirroring the messy situation faced by fans the last time round. Advice given to fans this afternoon - even those who previously pre-booked their slot to go shopping - is reportedly to now arrive and start queuing an hour before your expected entrance timing, Eurogamer has been told. The pop-up shop is open for four more days at London's ExCeL Centre, where Pokémon's World Championships are taking place. Eurogamer's Chris Tapsell is in attendance, and described it to me as "very busy". Read more  ( 16 min )
    New Call of Duty skin appears to plagiarise former Infinity Ward employee working on Dr Disrespect game
    A new skin has been released in Call of Duty, which bears a striking resemblance to the work of former Infinity Ward employee Robert Bowling. Bowling is now studio head at Midnight Society, the developer behind the NFT-fuelled shooter Deadrop that's backed by Dr Disrespect. Art for Deadrop was revealed in July, but now a very similar looking skin called Doomsayer is available in Call of Duty Vanguard and Warzone. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Untamed Isles is a cautionary tale of game development funded by crypto investors
    Untamed Isles, a Pokémon-like MMORPG with "optional" play-to-earn elements, has been placed on indefinite hiatus. The game had been set for an Early Access release date of 6th October, which will no longer be happening. "There's been a lot going on in the last 72 hours. This has been a wild rush," is how Joshua Grant, CEO of Phat Loot Studios, opened his Twitch stream on 12th August. The stream was held to address the statement that had just been published by Phat Loot, in which Untamed Isles' hiatus was announced, and to field questions from the community. Read more  ( 20 min )
    Mario Kart 8's new Booster Course Pass tracks betray their mobile origins
    Mario Kart 8 is a stunningly successful game with over 50 million copies sold across Wii U and Switch - so it's not surprising that Nintendo has returned with a content expansion for its blockbuster kart racer. Dubbed the Booster Course Pass, this expansion includes a whopping 48 courses split over six waves of course releases, with the last drop scheduled for late 2023. So far, 16 courses have been delivered but players and press alike have complained about basic layouts and graphical downgrades. At the heart of the issue is that the bulk of these tracks have been ported from Mario Kart Tour, a mobile game with simplified graphics and gameplay. So how do these new Booster Course tracks stack up - are they a good fit or is the distance from mobile just too large? While Mario Kart 8 has se…  ( 20 min )
    Fans think The Matrix is coming to MultiVersus
    Files relating to The Matrix have been found in MultiVersus' latest update, a reliable dataminer has claimed. The Matrix's iconic green text has been spotted lurking within Multiversus' code by AisulMV, suggesting a debut for Neo and pals may be on the cards. This would be no big surprise for MultiVersus, the Smash Bros-style brawler built on the back of Warner Bros. franchises - of which The Matrix saga is but one. Read more  ( 15 min )
    EA scores own goal with FIFA 23 pricing mix up
    EA has admitted it accidentally listed its most recent FIFA release on the Epic Games Store in India for a tiny 4.80 rupees. That is roughly 5p here in the UK. But it doesn't end there. To add insult to injury, this listing wasn't simply for the standard copy of the game. It was, in fact, for the Ultimate Edition. As noted by PC Gamer, this means those who purchased this version of the game at its mislisted price got it for a discount of 99.98 percent, as EA is honouring these purchases. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Nintendo was working on platform-agnostic accessibility controller, Reggie Fils-Aimé says
    Nintendo has used the Xbox adaptive controller as a starting point for its own accessibility controller. That's according to ex-Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aimé, who hopes the company was still developing the platform-agnostic controller. Xbox's controller was used "as a jumping-off point to create something that would be platform-agnostic and adaptable by any consumer," he told Inverse. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Leaked Fallout set images give us a closer look at TV adaptation
    A series of new images for the upcoming Fallout TV adaptation from Amazon have made their way online. These images give us a good look at some of the show's set pieces, and, dare I say it, it's all looking cautiously optimistic. This first set of images was shared by a former Bethesda employee, who goes by LoneVaultWanderer on Twitter. They show the inside of the series' vault, including a nursery, Vault 32 insignia and the Vault Boy poster warning of the outside world. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Fresh report alleges sexist workplace at Nintendo of America
    A report has detailed instances of sexual harassment at Nintendo of America, and a working environment where some women - particularly contract employees without full-time employment - felt pressured into silence. The report, published by Kotaku, builds on allegations reported in the past about a divide between Nintendo's full-time and contracted staff, the latter of whom enjoy fewer perks and lack job security. Now, women who worked as contract employees have come forward to discuss some of the issues they faced in particular, such as instances of sexual harassment and unequal pay. Read more  ( 15 min )
    DualSense's haptics need to find the right balance of immersion and functionality
    When it comes to video game consoles, the current generation has one platform holder going all-in on tactile immersion — Sony Interactive Entertainment. No stranger to creating immersive experiences, players may recall Sony's PSVR and its PS Move controller, the DualShock 4 with its touchpad and motion control, heck, even the EyeToy Play. The current generation PS5 includes a DualSense controller that comes packed with features from the DualShock 4 and tacks on new adaptive triggers and haptic feedback. Sony has been fixated on marketing this unique controller for immersion: selling players on the experience of feeling their bow being drawn taut, or the tippy tapping of raindrops against their palms. When it comes to accessibility for disabled players, there's so much potential that lies in the existence of these intricate haptics. It feels, though, as if the focus on immersion may be seeing developers forget about providing a balance, or optional choice, of immersion and functionality. I'll jump straight into how the controller's haptics can be useful for accessibility — the adaptive triggers are a story for another day. I'm Deaf and I wear hearing aids, yet I still miss key sounds, or I fail to understand the newfangled 3D audio. The haptics could guide me with directionality, they could make me feel immersed in a world to set the scene, and they could highlight a successful puzzle completion. Additionally, they could help those who are blind or have low vision, by informing players of interactive elements, making menu navigation more tactile, and also warning of nearby dangers such as enemies or ledges. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Fans believe Death Stranding may soon hit PC Game Pass
    A change to the PC Game Pass Twitter profile picture has fans believing Death Stranding may be on the way. The image, behind the PC Game Pass logo, is of a rugged landscape very similar to the Icelandic-inspired hills of Death Stranding. While Kojima Production's game was published by PlayStation for console release, the PC release was published by 505 Games - the Director's Cut was released earlier this year. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 pre-orders offer eight days of campaign early access
    The powers that be at Call of Duty have announced that those who digitally preorder Modern Warfare 2 will be able to play through the game's campaign eight days before its official release. So, instead of waiting until the 28th October to flex your muscles with Captain Price and co, you will be able to get a headstart on the 20th October instead. To accompany this news, we also got a bite-size trailer for the game's campaign, which you can see below. Meanwhile, in a new post, Activision states: "This Campaign features missions in Europe, Asia, and the Americas, and is set to be an incredible experience on numerous levels: offshore sieges with underwater combat, all-out explosive assaults from 30,000 feet above enemy strongholds, and high-stakes, low-profile stealth missions in both plain sight and under the cover of darkness." Read more  ( 16 min )
    Final Fantasy series "struggling" to adapt to industry trends, says Yoshi P
    Final Fantasy 14 director and producer Naoki Yoshida has stated he believes the game series is "struggling" to adapt to industry trends and meet player expectations. Speaking to Inverse, Yoshida discussed the future of the series. "In terms of whether Final Fantasy is successfully adapting to industry trends, I believe the series is currently struggling," he said. Read more  ( 15 min )
  • Open

    Samsung Preps Next-Gen V-NAND Memory: Higher Capacity and Performance
    Samsung's 8th Generation V-NAND memory looms to production.  ( 59 min )
    Record on Quantum Entanglement at a Distance Broken, Pulling in The Timeline for a Quantum Internet
    A team of researchers from China managed to entangle two different quantum memories across a 12.5 km distance in an urban environment, bringing the promise of a quantum internet closer.  ( 60 min )
    Tesla Brags About In-House Supercomputer, Now With 7,360 A100 GPUs
    Tesla is growing its Ampere GPU powered AI supercomputer for now, but ultimately plans to replace the processing power with its own Dojo D1 ASICs forged on TSMC N7.  ( 59 min )
    Corsair Teases First PCIe 5.0 SSD With 10,000MB/s of Bandwidth
    Corsair has teased its first PCIe 5.0 SSD, showing speeds of up to 10,000MB/s. Full specs and release date weren't shared, but we expect it may launch this winter.  ( 59 min )
    NASA Awards $50 Million Contract for Next Space Computer
    A lucrative contract to make spaceflight processors has gone to Microchip Technology, Inc. of Arizona.  ( 59 min )
    Ryzen 7 7700X Zen 4 CPU Qualifying Sample Spotted Online
    A new image of a Ryzen 7000 qualifying sample has surfaced online. The image is a shot of AMD's upcoming Ryzen 7 7700X 8 core CPU.  ( 59 min )
    TSMC to Begin 3nm Chip Production Next Month
    TSMC's N3 fabrication process to enter high-volume manufacturing in September.  ( 59 min )
    US-China Tech Export Approval Rate Proof of Policy Failure, Says Ex-Pentagon Analyst
    Even technologies which could be useful to the communist party controlled military are waved through. Critics say something must change to rebalance trade vs security concerns.  ( 59 min )
    RTX 3080 Laptop Deals: All the Models You Can Buy Right Now
    We help you find RTX 3080-powered gaming laptop deals.  ( 64 min )
    Alienware's Latest Gaming Monitor Hits 360Hz, Rocks Retractable Headset Hanger
    Both the AW2523HF and AW2723DF feature a retractable headset hanger.  ( 59 min )
    Intel Launches NUC 12 Pro 'Wall Street Canyon' Mini PCs
    Intel finally unveils its business-oriented NUC 12 Pro 'Wall Street Canyon' compact PCs.  ( 59 min )
    Largest Bitcoin Miners See $1 Billion Wiped From Value
    Large Bitcoin mining companies have made large losses, but continue to take out loans and refinance.  ( 59 min )
    Raspberry Pi Pico W Doorbell Sends Telegram Alerts
    Maurício Pessoa is using a Raspberry Pi Pico W to send alerts through Telegram when his doorbell is triggered.  ( 59 min )
    Mavix M9 Chair Review: Top Tier With a Price Tag to Match
    The Mavix M9 chair costs $1,000, but you get what you pay for. It puts other gaming chairs to shame with its comfort and ergonomic adjustments.  ( 69 min )
    Loupedeck Live, Loupedeck CT, and Loupedeck+: Which Model Makes Sense For You?
    The Loupedeck Live, Loupedeck CT, and Loupedeck+ consoles are excellent, highly-customizable tools for streaming, video editing, and beat-making, but the right one for you is situation-dependent.  ( 72 min )
    Tachyum Submits Bid to Build 20 Exaflops Supercomputer
    Tachyum proposes to build a 20 exaflops supercomputer based on its Prodigy processors by 2025.  ( 60 min )
  • Open

    Spellbook Demonslayers is the most insane Vampire Survivors-like yet
    You've put 100+ hours into Vampire Survivors and now what? Spellbook Demonslayers is what and there's a free prologue available for you to try out.  ( 4 min )
    Blossom Tales 2: The Minotaur Prince out with Linux support
    Blossom Tales 2: The Minotaur Prince is a new Native Linux release from Castle Pixel and Playtonic Friends. It hasn't been Steam Deck Verified yet but works great.  ( 4 min )
    Fun games for Steam Deck that won't break the bank
    Looking for some games to play on Steam Deck that are good, work well and don't cost too much? Here's a few choice picks from me to you.  ( 4 min )
    Airships: Conquer the Skies gets co-op and direct ship control
    Airships: Conquer the Skies is a wonderful Native Linux indie game about constructing various vehicles and conquering everything you can with them.  ( 4 min )
    Steam Deck gets a Stable Client update with Offline Mode fixes
    Not long after a bunch of changes rolled out to Preview and Beta, Valve has updated the Steam Deck Client software with various improvements.  ( 5 min )
    Valve dev understandably not happy about glibc breaking Easy Anti-Cheat on Linux
    Recently it was noticed that users on more bleeding-edge Linux distributions that updated saw Easy Anti-Cheat no longer working on Linux, the culprit was glibc and now a Valve developer has spoken out about it.  ( 8 min )
  • Open

    VEIKK VK1200 Drawing Tablet With 11.6-inch 1080p Display Works On Linux For ~$169
    VEIKK is a company I previously hadn't heard of that offers a range of pen displays and drawing tablets for digital artists. At first when they reached out around reviewing one of their drawing tablets, I questioned their Linux support but it turns out their graphics tablets do work across all major platforms. I've been trying out the VEIKK VK1200 the past few weeks and it's been working out decent as a 11.6-inch drawing monitor for just $169 USD.  ( 4 min )
    Official Ubuntu RISC-V Images Released For StarFive's VisionFive Board
    Earlier this summer I wrote about Canonical working to provide good support for StarFive's VisionFive low-cost RISC-V board. That work has now culminated with an Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS image for use on this Chinese RISC-V single board computer...  ( 5 min )
    AMD PMF Driver Queued Ahead Of Linux 6.1 Later This Year
    While Linux 6.0 won't be out for another month and a half, on deck already for Linux 6.1 is the AMD Platform Management Framework "PMF" driver being queued into platform-drivers-x86.git...  ( 5 min )
    Microsoft Xbox Adaptive Controller Support Being Worked On For Linux
    Microsoft's Xbox Adaptive Controller is intended for gamers with limited mobility and is intended as a control hub to making gaming more accessible. Linux support for the Xbox Adaptive Controller is being worked on...  ( 4 min )
    RADV Radeon Vulkan Driver Begins Landing Graphics Pipeline Library Support
    Mesa's Radeon Vulkan driver "RADV" has started seeing support land for VK_EXT_graphics_pipeline_library thanks to the work of one of Valve's Linux graphics driver developers...  ( 5 min )
    NVIDIA JetPack 5.0.2 Released With Production Support For AGX Orin
    NVIDIA this week published JetPack 5.0.2 as their updated development environment and SDK for their Arm-powered Jetson modules and developer kits...  ( 4 min )
    Linux Patch Sparks Differing Views Over External Monitor Handling With iGPU vs. dGPU
    Canonical kernel engineer Kai-Heng Feng posted a patch on Tuesday for capable laptops to switch their external monitor connections to be routed through a laptop's discrete GPU rather than the integrated GPU. With select laptops this can be done with an ACPI call but raises questions among upstream developers rather this change is indeed desirable...  ( 5 min )
    VFX & Animation Studios Urged To Upgrade To RHEL 9 Or Rocky Linux / AlmaLinux 9
    VFX Reference Platform as a standards body that aims to help standardize software platforms in the realm of digital content creation (DCC) has published a detailed report for studios to consider in choosing their next Linux platform. Their new recommendations for visual effects and animation studios about moving to newer Linux distributions over the next year -- especially with many still relying on CentOS 7 -- is for moving to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 otherwise one of the downstreams like Rocky Linux or AlmaLinux. Close behind in their recommendations and as a longer-term objective is also tossing some support behind Ubuntu Linux...  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Souls-lika Thymesia får blandade omdömen inför släppet i morgon
    Från "överraskande bra" till "Bloodbornes korkade kusin".  ( 6 min )
    I tokmysiga Bloody Hell Hotel är du en vampyr som driver ett hotell
    Ett perfekt sätt att ha stabil tillgång till färskt blod.  ( 6 min )
    Life is Strange-remastrarna har fått släppdatum till Switch
    I september återvänder vi till Arcadia Bay.  ( 6 min )
    Inför Overwatch 2 - så länkar du spelkonton till battle.net
    Viktigt att välja rätt konto.  ( 6 min )
    1993 års Doom har äntligen fått 3d-fiender
    Mod byter 2d-sprites mot 3d-voxlar.  ( 6 min )
    Läckta foton från Fallout-tv-serien ser ut att göra spelen rättvisa
    Vault 32 har hamnat på bild.  ( 6 min )
    Blodpåsar für alle när Warhammer 3 äntligen blir lite kladdigare
    Blood for the Blood God släpps samtidigt som betan för Immortal Empires.  ( 7 min )
    Snabbkollen - Hur bra blir spelhösten 2022?
    Flipp, flopp eller mittemellan? Rösta!  ( 6 min )
    Förseningsvansinnet fortsätter - Evil West skjuts fram två månader
    Den tionde (!) förseningen vi rapporterar om i augusti.  ( 7 min )
    Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2:s kampanj släpps tidigare för digitala förhandsbokare
    Lira upp till en vecka innan resten av spelet släpps.  ( 6 min )
    PC Game Pass tycks antyda att Death Stranding är på väg till tjänsten
    Trots att Sony äger varumärket.  ( 6 min )
    En "Playstation PC launcher" nämns i Spider-Man Remastered-filerna
    Sony verkar ha stora pc-planer.  ( 6 min )
    Crusader Kings 3 höjer kraftigt priset på vissa DLC
    Och spelarna ställer sig frågande till tilltaget.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Comic for 2022.08.17 - Turn and Cough
    New Cyanide and Happiness Comic  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Images from the set of Amazon's Fallout series have leaked
    Images of Amazon's Fallout production set have leaked online. The images are said to have come from the in-production Fallout TV series in development for Amazon and appear to show the interior of Vault 32. Originally posted to the Fallout subreddit before being deleted, the images show a nursery, conference room, a delapidated farm, and a Vault Boy poster (thanks, RPS). Read more  ( 15 min )
    Bungie releases Destiny 2 trailer ahead of next week's showcase that teases what's to come in Season 18
    Bungie has released a teaser ahead of its Destiny 2 showcase scheduled for next week. You can check out the teaser below that takes a quick glimpse back at some of 2022’s best moments. On Tuesday, August 23, Bungie will stream its Destiny 2 Showcase and unveil the next expansion in the Light and Darkness saga: Lightfall. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Dying Light 2's first story DLC, Bloody Ties, to be revealed at gamescom Opening Night Live
    The first story DLC for Dying Light 2, Bloody Ties, will debut in a world premiere trailer at gamescom Opening Night Live on August 23. You can catch a teaser for the upcoming trailer below that offers a glimpse at the dangers lurking in Carnage Hall. Originally set to release earlier this year, Bloody Ties was moved into September so that Techland could give the DLC the "absolute highest level of polish" to meet players' expectations. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Planet of Lana release moved to spring 2023, coming day one to Xbox Game Pass
    The lovely cinematic puzzle adventure Planet of Lana will miss its planned 2022 release and will instead arrive during spring 2023. According to publisher Thunderful and independent studio Wishfully, the delay will provide the development team with extra time to ensure the game meets its full potential. "We’re sorry that completing development on Planet of Lana will take longer than initially expected, but we promise it will be worth the wait,” said Wishfully director Adam Stjarnljus. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Overwatch players can now merge console and PC accounts in preparation for Overwatch 2's release
    Overwatch players can now merge multiple accounts to carry progression and in-game cosmetics over to Overwatch 2 on a single profile. If you have a linked console account, you will be prompted at login to "identify, select, and confirm" the accounts you want to merge. Once approved, Blizzard will prepare your accounts to be merged during the release of Overwatch 2. The platforms included in account merge are Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Read more  ( 15 min )
    I really hope Street Fighter 6 doesn’t get any guest characters
    It is honestly a really good time to be a fan of fighting games. Guilty Gear is good, there’s a new Smash alternative in Multiversus, there’s probably a new Netherrealm game on the horizon, there’s definitely a new Tekken coming, and Street Fighter 6 is well and truly on the way, in the thick of what’ll presumably be a relentless promotion cycle over the next nine months or so. There’s a lot of reasons to be excited for Street Fighter 6 in particular, too. For starters, Capcom’s fighting game unit is under new management, and the core creatives in charge of SF6 are the same guys who dragged Street Fighter 5 out of the gutter and ultimately made it a high quality and shockingly well-balanced game in its final seasons. It also looks really nice – in my opinion the best-looking 3D Street Fighter to date – thanks to both shrewd art direction and Capcom’s brilliant RE Engine technology. But one other thing I’m excited about based on what we know of the game so far is that it appears to be continuing a Street Fighter tradition - ducking the modern fighting game trend of guest characters. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Tower of Fantasy review: Genshin Impact’s newest rival will be lucky to survive the winter
    Tower of Fantasy seemed to ignite in hype and popularity overnight, right? Sure, those invested in this particular brand of RPG may have been aware of its arrival for some time, but who could have expected it to capture so much attention — to become the topic of conversation in gaming spaces. Off the back of this hype, I jumped in eager to see what’s going on among thousands of other like-minded folks. While initially great, the heat and hype radiating off Tower of Fantasy whittles away quickly. It’s a flashfire, catching your eye at first before smoldering to a quick and disappointing conclusion, burning up your time (and perhaps your wallet) in that fleeting moment. But what is Tower of Fantasy? First off, it’s not a brand-new game by any means. Released in China some time ago, the action-RPG has now been released globally for both mobile platforms and PC. It falls into the category of ‘ever expanding and ludicrously profitable open world Gacha ARPG’, a genre currently dominated by Genshin Impact in the west and with more and more titles with shared DNA trickling over. Read more  ( 22 min )
    Old School RuneScape gets new Tombs of Amascut raid August 24
    Old School RuneScape fans have something new to look forward too later this month, as a brand new raid is coming to the game on August 24. Called the Tombs of Amascut, players will have to delve deep into a fresh new environment for new loot including powerful weapons and armour. If you’re not at the pinnacle of OSRS progression, there’s no need to worry since the Tombs of Amascut features an invocation system that allows you to adjust the difficulty of different elements of the raid. These come in the forms of buffs and debuffs that alter that challenge you can expect to run into. This raid continues the story established in the Beneath Cursed Sands quest, and has players venture below the desert to stop Amascut’s nefarious plans. The raid itself is split into four main sections which can be completed in any order players choose, with each having its own unique puzzles and/or combat challenges. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Why 4 million people – and counting – are flocking to Korea’s hottest battle royale
    SUPER PEOPLE’s beta testing phase is drawing to a close, but ahead of the game’s general launch, there’s one last push from developer Wonder People to show the world at large what this new-fangled battle royale is all about before its full launch. That said, a lot of people will already be familiar with one of Korea’s hottest battle royale experiments: over 4 million people have played the game so far, and every new beta session has seen user numbers spike. But what is it that continues to draw people in – especially in a world where there’s so much competition in the genre? Director Seong-Gon Park from Wonder People explains. “From the time we first introduced SUPER PEOPLE, our core fun factor was clear,” they explain. “Although it is a battle royale, the fun of building up is clear due to the character and equipment growth factors. You can create your own strategies through super skills, and a variety of battles are produced rather than the same battle pattern. And even if you’re at a disadvantage, chances for reversal are always available.” Read more  ( 17 min )
    Grounded introduces Shared Worlds, making multiplayer much easier
    Grounded is the charming survival game that has remained in Early Access for a while now. Although, not for much longer, with the game slated to release on September 27 of this year. In the meantime, Obsidian is not neglecting updates for the game, with the latest change to be introduced involving Shared Worlds. The adventure itself sees takes Honey, I Shrunk The Kids and turns it into a video game. As a pint-sized version of your former self, you must navigate blades of grass and spar with unfriendly insects to get by. While the game is certainly fun to play solo, it reaches its full potential when played co-operatively with friends. That said, multiplayer can be relatively troublesome. Previously, co-op required one player - the host - to be online for anyone to play on that chosen world. Every time someone wanted to play, the host would need to be around. Now, obviously not everyone has the same schedules, and this can pose an issue. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Wild West God of War with guns, Evil West, is the latest game to suffer a delay
    Evil West, one of the few games we were counting on playing next month, has been pushed back by two months. The game will now be released on November 22. It's also been a little over two months since Evil Was was given a September release date, so we're hoping this is the last of its delays, because late November/early December release dates have a tendency to turn into Q1 of the following year. Publisher Focus Entertainment broke the news on Twitter in a joint statement with developer Flying Wild Hog. The statement explains that because the game is coming out on five platforms spanning two console generations (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S), more time was simply needed to ensure the experience is polished on all of them. Read more  ( 15 min )
    PC Game Pass teases a new game and people reckon it's Death Stranding
    Last night, the official PC Game Pass Twitter account made a change to its social media profile that has set tongues wagging and made everyone a little bit dubious about what the hell is going on. The account, with a message that said “sometimes we just like a good landscape picture #newprofilepic” leads you to look at the new icon – which has a landscape seemingly reminiscent of Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding. If you click through to the picture and look beyond the Game Pass branding, you'll clock a landscape that looks quite a lot like the Icelandic-inspired landscapes you'll see in Kojima's latest sci-fi epic. The tweet below, for example, highlights some of the similarities to the image and what you'll see in the PlayStation and PC-only game. Read more  ( 17 min )
  • Open

    Försäljning av hårddiskar minskar med 15 procent
    En rapport för årets andra kvartal visar att försäljningen av hårddiskar minskar. Samtidigt är den levererade lagringskapaciteten stabil.  ( 5 min )
    Rösta fram de somrigaste bilderna i Samsungs fototävling
    Det är dags att rösta fram vinnarbilderna i Samsungs tävling. Dyk in i omröstning och uppfylls av sommarkänslor.  ( 6 min )
    Snabbtitt: Fractal Design Focus 2
    Calle och Jonas tar en titt på Fractal Designs nylanserade "budgetchassi" Focus 2, där modellens nedskalade utförande inte riktigt stämmer överens med prislappen.  ( 5 min )
    Logitech släpper hörlurar till Meta Quest 2
    Logitech vill förbättra ljudupplevelsen för användare av VR-headsetet Quest 2 genom att lansera hörlurstillbehöret Chorus.  ( 5 min )
    Sony kan ha PC-launcher på ingång
    Indikationer om att Sony har en Playstation-launcher på gång till PC har hittats i samband med nya Spider-Man Remastered.  ( 6 min )
    Sony verkar ha PC-launcher på ingång
    Indikationer om att Sony har en Playstation-launcher på gång till PC har hittats i samband med nya Spider-Man Remastered.  ( 5 min )
    Veckans fråga: Var har du din dator?
    Är du en skrytmåns och har din dator på en piedestal, eller är datormaskinen gömd långt in under skrivbordet? I veckans fråga undrar vi kort och gott var du har din dator.  ( 5 min )
    Skrivbordet Lumina Desk är försett med OLED-skärm
    Lumina Desk ger användare mer skärmyta tack vare en inbyggd OLED-panel på 24 tum.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Jonathan Dowland: dues (or blues)
    After I wrote hledger, I got some good feedback, both from a friend in-person and also on Twitter. My in-person friend asked, frankly, do I really try to manage money like this: tracking every single expense? Which affirms my suspicion, that many people don't, and that it perhaps isn't essential to do so. Combined with the details below, 3/4 of the way through my experiment with using hledger, I'm not convinced that it has been a good idea. I'm quoting my Twitter feedback here in order to respond. The context is handling when I have used the "wrong" card to pay for something: a card affiliated with my family expenses for something personal, or vice versa. With double-entry book-keeping, and one pair of transactions, the destination account can either record the expense category: 2022-08-20…  ( 2 min )
  • Open

    Untitled
    This is the description. Oh Oh yea, the link https://patreon.com/shencomix  ( 2 min )
  • Open

    What’s the difference between apt-get upgrade vs dist-upgrade?
    The apt-get upgrade and dist-upgrade are both used for upgrading the installed packages. So, what's the difference?  ( 24 min )
    Desktop Linux Market Share: August 2022
    Curious to know the latest market share percentage for Linux desktop? You don't have to do the research, we've done it for you.  ( 23 min )
  • Open

    Gen Z
    No content preview  ( 1 min )

  • Open

    Sony might be planning their own PC game launcher
    There are references to a "PlayStation PC launcher" within files for Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered's PC release, which launched last week. As spotted by VGC, the mention suggests Sony could launch their own bespoke game launcher on PC and allow players to link PC games to PlayStation Network accounts. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Flying citybuilder Airborne Kingdom is getting free DLC next month
    Airborne Kingdom, the chill citybuilder about constructing a city in the sky, is getting a free bit of DLC. Coming this September, Airborne Kingdom: The Lost Tundra will float your urban sprawl above an icy wasteland, and challenge you to keep your city flying in a biome which lacks food and water while your machinery freezes. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Evil West's vampire-hunting cowboys delayed, but only until November
    Evil West, Flying Wild Hog's third-person shooter about a vampire-hunting cowboy, has been delayed from its September release plans. If you're desperate to complete the unofficial trilogy of "____ West" games in 2022, then you're still in luck: Evil West will follow in Weird West and Hard West 2's cowboy boots by launching on November 22nd. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Spider-Man Remastered mods already let you dress up as Stan Lee, Miles Morales, and lots more
    It's taken mere days since the release of Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered on PC for players to crack open the game and noodle with its insides. Thus far the result is a slew of reskin mods which let you replace Spidey with other characters and play while looking like Kingpin, Miles Morales, Mary Jane, or - as pictured above - Stan Lee. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Get an RTX 3060 GPU for £279 thanks to this Ebay code
    Earlier today we looked at a deal on AMD's top graphics card, the RX 6950 XT, and now it's time to look at the opposite end of the market: one of Nvidia's cheapest RTX graphics cards. Ebay is running a promotion today that knocks 15% off the price of brand-new items when you use the code BANK15 at the checkout, and you can use this to pick an RTX 3060 12GB for just £279. This is a great price for this mid-range GPU, and it's especially rare to see features like hardware-accelerated ray tracing and DLSS image reconstruction at this price point. Read more  ( 16 min )
    AMD's fastest GPU, the RX 6950 XT, is £850 at Scan today
    Yesterday we took a look at the massive price drops affecting flagship Nvidia RTX graphics cards, and now it's time to see the best deal going on AMD's best and brightest. As RPS reader Skiddywinks points out, you can pick up the Radeon RX 6950 XT for £850 at Scan right now - about £200 cheaper than its UK RRP. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Immortals Fenyx Rising, Immortality, and more Zachtronics coming to Game Pass this month
    Microsoft have laid out their PC Game Pass plans for the second half of August, adding another eight games to the subscription service across the remaining weeks then removing eight at the end of the month. Additions include Zachtronics hacking game Exapunks and Ubisoft's child-friendly open world 'em up Immortals Fenyx Rising. Alas, games going include the wonderfully sad What Remains Of Edith Finch and wonderfully wonderful Hades. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Sci-fi MMO Dual Universe finally blasts out of beta in September
    Ambitious single-server sandbox MMO Dual Universe is setting course onto Steam on September 27th, after spending eight years in development hypersleep. For the past two years, the interstellar RPG has been in beta. There’s a two-week free trial planned for people who’ve played the game before, and Steam players will be able to have a go for free too, just on a different server. Get a glimpse of what’s been happening in the two-year-long beta in the trailer below. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Sidescrolling lost-world adventure Little Orpheus finally lands on PC in September
    Dear Esther and Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture devs The Chinese Room are bringing their postponed cosmonaut adventure Little Orpheus to PC on September 13th. The game had originally been due to launch on March 1st but was delayed. Little Orpheus stars a Soviet Russian character, and the devs wanted to review its content before release out of sensitivity to the conflict in Ukraine. Check out the trailer below. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Guild Wars 2 rides its dragon onto Steam on August 23rd
    Long-running fantasy MMORPG Guild Wars 2 will hop onto Steam on August 23rd, not quite ten years to the day since it launched in August 2012. Can you even remember what you were doing then? I was getting my wedding organised. Have a watch of the announcement trailer below. For Guild Wars 2 coming to Steam, not my wedding. We just didn’t have that kind of budget. Read more  ( 16 min )
    If you like inventory tetris, check out the dungeon crawler Backpack Hero
    Excellent roguelikelike dungeon crawler Backpack Hero launched into early access this week, and it's absolutely worth a go if you enjoy shuffle items around your inventory grid. Backpack Hero is all about arranging weapons and items inside your massive sack to develop powerful synergies, see. Some items buff items touching them, while others benefit from empty spaces, or some insist upon being in a certain grid row, and some even move around by themselves. The buildcrafting gets fiendishly fun as your critter delves deeper into dungeons in search of a giant hunk of cheese. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Unity rejects AppLovin’s $17.5b takeover offer
    Unity Software have chosen to reject a $17.54 billion (£14.58 billion) all-stock takeover offer from mobile gaming technology company AppLovin to instead pursue their own planned merger with AppLovin’s rival ironSource. Unity’s board of directors unanimously cast aside the AppLovin offer, which hadn’t been sought by the game engine company, after a “thorough financial and strategic evaluation”. The board has recommended that shareholders vote against AppLovin’s offer. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Disney's Marvel Games Showcase will reveal first look at Amy Hennig's Marvel ensemble project
    Disney and Marvel have revealed they’ll be hosting a joint games showcase for the first time during this year’s D23 Expo. The in-person and digital showcase starts at 1pm PST/4pm EST/9pm BST on September 9th. Have a watch of the very concise trailer below to get an idea of what’s being shown at the event. Read more  ( 17 min )
  • Open

    SEC says brokerage accounts hijacked for $1.3m pump-and-dump scam
    18 people and businesses charged, one giant web of connections America's financial watchdog has accused 18 individuals and shell companies of using compromised brokerage accounts to manipulate stock prices to rake in $1.3 million in illicit profits.…  ( 6 min )
    Dinobabies latest: IBM settles with widow of exec who killed himself after layoff
    Big Blue certainly seems blue about letting any of these claims go to trial IBM has settled the age-discrimination case brought against it by the widow of a sales executives who took his own life after being laid off.…  ( 5 min )
    AMD has a lot riding on its 5nm Ryzen 7000 CPUs. And so here begins the hype
    You'll need a new motherboard, RAM, beefier PSU. But hey, at least GPUs are cheap again AMD’s Ryzen 7000-series microprocessors will officially launch later this month during the company’s “together we advance PC” virtual event, where CEO Lisa Su and CTO Mark Papermaster will showcase the chipmaker’s Zen 4-based CPU cores.…  ( 6 min )
    Apple to compel workers to spend '3 days a week' in the office
    Mandate starts in September, staff say its about 'fear of worker autonomy' Apple has told its workforce they must come into the office for at least three days a week from September to get back to "in-person collaboration."…  ( 4 min )
    Discord details how it dodged latency with a super-disk made in the cloud
    For when a GCP Local SSD is just not quite reliable enough Chat platform Discord delivered a playful slap to Google yesterday with a post describing how the company dealt with "reliability issues" to achieve some impressively low latency.…  ( 5 min )
    PC store told it can't claim full cyber-crime insurance after social-engineering attack
    Two different kinds of fraud, says judge while throwing out lawsuit against insurer A Minnesota computer store suing its crime insurance provider has had its case dismissed, with the courts saying it was a clear instance of social engineering, a crime for which the insurer was only liable to cover a fraction of total losses.…  ( 6 min )
    Microsoft tests new features in last year’s Windows 10
    Still waiting for 22H2? Have a 21H2 release preview to tide you over Remember 2021? Microsoft does, and has emitted a fresh build to the Windows Insider Release Preview channel for Windows 10 21H2, with a few useful fixes, including one where Edge will stop responding when Internet Explorer mode is on.…  ( 5 min )
    PC and mobile DRAM demand down while server memory holds up, says Trendforce
    Samsung, SK hynix, Micron benefit most but there are signs that pricing and shipment growth are weakening The DRAM industry saw an increase in revenue for the second quarter of 2022 as some suppliers managed to expand the total bits shipped, but the PC and mobile markets weakened in response to inflation, while the server memory market continued to hold up.…  ( 5 min )
    Microsoft's macOS Tamper Protection hits general availability
    A boon for administrators having to deal with Apple hardware while also keeping everything secure Microsoft Defender for Endpoint's Tamper Protection in macOS has entered general availability.…  ( 5 min )
    Broadcom challenges Nvidia's Spectrum-4 with 51.2T switch silicon
    Double the bandwidth of previous gen and 6x reduction in power consumption Broadcom says it has doubled the capacity of its merchant switch silicon with the launch of the 51.2Tbps Tomahawk5 ASIC this week.…  ( 5 min )
    1,900 Signal users exposed: Twilio attacker 'explicitly' looked for certain numbers
    Bad guy also got SMS verification codes, and re-registered one of the numbers they searched for The security breach at Twilio earlier this month affected at least one high-value customer, Signal, and led to the exposure of the phone number and SMS registration codes for 1,900 users of the encrypted messaging service, it confirmed.…  ( 5 min )
    Ryugu asteroid: It came from the outer solar system, say scientists
    Japanese Hayabusa-2 probe samples reveal coarse-grained phyllosilicates that may have served as 'cradles' for organics and water Scientists examining samples from the asteroid Ryugu retrieved by the Japanese Hayabusa-2 probe have concluded that Ryugu is a drifter from the outer solar system.…  ( 5 min )
    Microsoft Azure cloud region settles over desert in Doha, Qatar
    Opening was delayed during that pandemic thing Microsoft Azure launched a long-awaited new cloud region in Doha, Qatar, on Monday.…  ( 4 min )
    Reckon Russian spies are lurking in your inbox? Check for these IOCs, Microsoft says
    Seaborgium targeted dozens of orgs this year alone Microsoft said it disabled accounts used by Russian-linked Seaborgium troupe to phish and steal credentials from its customers as part of the cybercrime gang's illicit spying and data-stealing activities.…  ( 6 min )
    UK government lines up billions to refresh legacy tech in 600-system UK tax dept
    Let's hope DALAS procurement is a tad more sensible than its soap opera namesake The UK government's commercial wing has begun to set up a contracting agreement set to be worth up to £4.5 billion ($5.4 billion) for application software services supporting the nation's tax collector.…  ( 5 min )
    Ninefold increase in startup layoffs in Q2 follows economic uncertainty
    Industry set to readjust to new realities of raising cash The second quarter of 2022 has seen more than nine times the number of layoffs from tech startups than the first, according to industry figures.…  ( 4 min )
    This tiny Intel Xeon-toting PC board can take your Raspberry Pi any day
    Did someone say ECC on an SBC? That Raspberry Pi 4B feeling a bit pokey? Asus' Aaeon division has managed to fit an eight-core Xeon processor, complete with error correcting memory (ECC) support, and a PCIe 4.0 x8 slot into a four-inch single board computer.…  ( 5 min )
    Philippines orders fraud probe after paying MacBook prices for slow Celeron laptops
    Education Department planned to buy 70,000 laptops, blew its budget and bought just 40,000 When COVID-19 closed schools in The Philippines, the nation’s government acted to ensure its teachers had the kit they needed to keep working by allocating funds to acquire nearly 70,000 laptops.…  ( 4 min )
    World record for strongest steady magnetic field 'broken' by Chinese team
    Superconductive hybrid magnet claimed to be 4,500 times stronger than a fridge stick-on Chinese scientists claim to have broken the record for producing the strongest steady magnetic field, one that's at least a million times more powerful than planet Earth's, using a superconducting system. …  ( 6 min )
    Supply chain worries heat up again as China shuts down factories to cool its citizens
    Scorching weather sees scarce juice diverted to aircon instead of laptops and lithium A heatwave in China has disrupted operations at laptop component makers and assemblers in Sichuan province and the municipality of Chongqing this week, creating the possibility of further problems in tech supply chains.…  ( 5 min )
    Digital Ocean dumps Mailchimp after attack leaked customer email addresses
    Somebody went after crypto-centric companies’ outsourced email but the damage was felt in the cloud Junior cloud Digital Ocean has revealed that some of its clients’ email addresses were exposed to attackers, thanks to an attack on email marketing service Mailchimp.…  ( 5 min )
    Ant Group’s in-house DB set for global release, including Raspberry Pi edition
    OceanBase 4.0 is derived from tech behind Alipay and is MySQL compatible Ant Group, the financial services company spun out of Chinese tech giant Alibaba, has created a database it's claiming is a speedy and scalable alternative to MySQL, and will soon market it widely in China and beyond.…  ( 4 min )
    After suffering $1b subsidy snub, Starlink lands $2m US Air Force deal
    Always look on the bright (oh God, they are so bright) side of life The US Air Force is giving $1.9 million to SpaceX to test if Starlink can support military bases in Europe and Africa.…  ( 4 min )
    It's 2022 and there are still thousands of public systems using password-less VNC
    Let alone the ones with 123456 to login. How sophisticated do attackers really need to be? Thousands of machines on the public internet can be remotely controlled via VNC without any authentication, a cybersecurity vendor has reminded us this month.…  ( 6 min )
    Oh Deere: Farm hardware jailbroken to run Doom
    Corn-y demo heralded as right-to-repair win At DEF CON 30 on Saturday, an Australian who goes by the handle Sick Codes showed off a way to fully take control of some John Deere farming machine electronics to run first-person shooter Doom.…  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Growing Pain
    No content preview
  • Open

    When context is key: “Hunger stones” go viral, but news first broke in 2018
    Landmark stones recorded low-water levels during droughts to warn future generations.  ( 7 min )
    Sweeping report alleges inequity, sexual harassment at Nintendo’s American HQ
    NoA full-timers accused of "using the tester pool of associates as a dating pool."  ( 5 min )
    Deadly swatting increasing on Twitch; alarmed streamers press for change
    Some streamers report multiple swatting attempts weekly.  ( 6 min )
    Will the Nintendo Switch ever see a price drop?
    The best-selling console has sat at $299.99 for an unprecedented five-plus years.  ( 6 min )
    Report: Windows 11 22H2 update will be released on September 20
    22H2 includes security upgrades, redesigned Task Manager, and other refinements.  ( 5 min )
    Musk wins one, loses 21 others as judge denies access to many Twitter records
    Twitter must produce documents from a fired executive—but Musk wanted a lot more.  ( 5 min )
    Pixel 6 owners who upgrade to Android 13 can never go back
    Anti-rollback enforcement disables downgrades for Google's latest devices.  ( 5 min )
    Almost-certain Nest Wifi appears at FCC with Wi-Fi 6E on-board
    What looks like Google's next mesh Wi-Fi router could offer better backhaul.  ( 5 min )
    Lord of the Rings mechanical keyboards are perfect for people who speak Elvish
    Keyboards build on Drop's November release of LotR keycap sets.  ( 6 min )
    Court rules FCC is allowed to reassign 5.9 GHz bandwidth, killing V2X
    Bandwidth was set aside in 1999, but V2X has been an abject failure.  ( 5 min )
    Microbiologist tries at-home test kits to see what they reveal about microbiome
    You and the trillions of microbes in your gut can live in harmony.  ( 5 min )
    After ICBM test, US stresses it was “not the result of current world events”
    Test comes after delays due to Russia, China tensions.  ( 5 min )
    De-extinction company sets its next (first?) target: The thylacine
    We killed the last thylacine about a century ago. Can we correct that mistake?  ( 7 min )
    Review: Das Keyboard’s MacTigr is a snappy, but limited, Mac mechanical
    Despite quality typing, power users may want more features.  ( 6 min )
    Amazon accuses FTC of harassing executives including Jeff Bezos and Andy Jassy
    Retail giant hits out at US regulator’s tactics in probe into Prime memberships.  ( 5 min )
    First look at del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities is magically macabre
    “The world is beautiful and horrible, at exactly the same time…”  ( 5 min )
    CDC to regain control of US hospital data after Trump-era seizure, chaos
    TeleTracking, which has personal ties to Trump, made over $50M in federal contracts.  ( 6 min )
    As Big Tech grapples with caste-based discrimination, Apple explicitly bans it
    Workers allege that casteism influences how companies hire and promote talent.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 open beta and multiplayer reveal dated
    Beta dates for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 have been announced, along with when we'll get a look at the multiplayer campaign. First, let's start with information on the tester, which will be split into two playable weekends. The dates and prerequisites are a bit different for each platform, so pay close attention to the information below. Read more  ( 16 min )
    MultiVersus datamine suggests Beetlejuice and Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West are coming to the game
    A new leak suggests that announcer packs for the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz and Beetlejuice are coming to MultiVersus. The leak comes from a datamine, so neither character is confirmed, but voice lines found in the mine seem to indicate the Wicked Witch will be an announcer and that Beetlejuice will be conversing with her. MultiVersus leaker AisulMV posted clips of the lines earlier this week, but the Beetlejuice lines were taken off Twitter due to a copyright claim (thanks, Polygon). Read more  ( 15 min )
    Xbox Game Pass is losing some brilliant games soon
    The latest titles to come to Xbox Game Pass have been announced, and while there's some good titles on the way, it's also that time of the month again where we commiserate the great games that are soon to be leaving. Amongst the titles leaving is NBA 2K22, Two Point Hospital, and Elite: Dangerous. So, I've bad news for both avid space explorers, basketball pros, and hospital managers alike, as all three will be bidding farewell to Xbox Games Pass on August 31. This isn't all, either. There's truly a cracking line-up of titles leaving in just a couple of weeks, which consists of a few quaint but enjoyable indie titles. These include Spiritfarer, Twelve Minutes, What Remains of Edith Finch, and Signs of the Sojourner. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Saints Row trailer gives you a taste of the story
    Check out this rather interesting story trailer for Saints Row. The video gives you a taste of the Saints' formation, rivals, and rise to power. It also features all sorts of explosions. Set in Santo Ileso, a brand new location located in the American Southwest, the reboot stars a group of friends who embark on a criminal venture in a bid to become Self Made. Read more  ( 15 min )
    LEGO Bricktales coming to consoles and PC later this year
    The LEGO Group and Thunderful have announced platforms and a release window for the upcoming adventure game LEGO Bricktales. In development with Clockstone, the studio that brought you Bridge Constructor, the game finds you traveling across a range of diorama biomes built from LEGO bricks. The new digital adventure features a storyline and five LEGO-themed biomes such as a jungle, desert, a busy city corner, a medieval castle, and a tropical Caribbean island full of secrets and interesting characters. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Thymesia reviews round-up - all the scores
    OverBorder Studio's first project is one that may be biting off more than it can chew. Thymesia is a Souls-like inspired mainly by Bloodborne, with a few hints of Sekiro thrown in for good measure. The indie game arrives this Thursday, August 18, but is it worth playing? Well, that's what we hope this story will answer. As we like to do, we've rounded up all of the review scores from games media to help you make a decision. Thymesia is a challenging game of deflects, dodges and a Plague mechanic that wants you to keep up the pressure. Attacking enemies in Thymesia only wounds them, befitting the plague doctor theme. To truly kill an enemy, you must capitalise on the advantage, turning temporary wounds into permanent damage. Read more
    NFL Blitz returns in a thrilling new package via Arcade1Up – but the league really needs to get over itself
    NFL Blitz, one of the best sporting video games ever created, is finally making a comeback in a remastered form thanks to the home arcade company Arcade1Up – marking the first new entry in the wider Blitz franchise since 2012, and the first re-release of the 90s classics since 2001. Blitz really is something special. I suspect some of the readers of VG247 may not have even been alive when these games first released, but they’re basically the ultimate in arcade sports, alongside NBA Jam (which happens to have been headed up by some of the same development staff). In short, Blitz takes the sport of American Football and dials everything up to 11 – making it faster, sillier, and more full-on. It was designed to provoke intense competition between friends in the arcade. And also, of course, drain you of your coins. There were a few iterations in arcades and on console between 1997 and 2001, but later entries lost much of what made the originals special. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers: don't miss out on your bonus MultiVersus perk in August
    You probably don't need me to tell you that Reindog is quietly one of the best support class characters in MultiVersus, do you? Between his tether that just piles on the damage to anyone caught in the middle and his control of the battlefield with tricky little projectiles, he's a half-reindeer, half-canine force to be reckoned with. So, to that end, you want to make him look the part whenever you use him. Luckily for you, as of August 23, you'll be able to claim a free in-game MVP Pack that features the Battle Reindog variant (which sees the adorable hybrid animal don armour and a little neckerchief) as well as the Waterfall Banner, and the Dark Matter Ringout Effect. This pack was previously excluisve to PS+ users over on the PlayStation side of things, but it seems as we've moved from July to August, the freebie has flipped platforms, too. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Immortals Fenyx Rising, Commandos 3 – HD Remaster, Midnight Fight Express, more coming to Xbox Game Pass
    Microsoft has announced the next batch of titles coming to Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass. Titles include Immortality, Tinykin, Immortals Fenyx Rising, Coffee Talk, Commandos 3 - HD Remaster and more. First up is today's release of Coffee Talk, the coffee brewing and talking simulator we told you about earlier. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Guild Wars 2 arrives on Steam this month, with new complete collection available
    Guild Wars 2 is a free-to-play MMORPG that you’ve no doubt already heard of. First released back in 2012 and privy to plenty of expansions since, it has been announced that the game will be coming to Steam on August 23. This is the first time that Guild Wars 2 has been made available on a third-party platform, and a new Steam trailer has been made available for the launch. Those who use Steam will be able to jump into the fantasy-fuelled MMORPG as of next week, August 23, without the need to spend a penny or start a new subscription; something that Guild Wars 2 appears to pride itself in. Read more  ( 15 min )
    First-ever Disney and Marvel Games Showcase will take place at this year’s D23 Expo
    A joint showcase between Disney and Marvel will be held during the D23 Expo on Friday, September 9. During the digital showcase, you can expect to see new content from Disney and Pixar Games, Marvel Games, Lucasfilm Games, and 20th Century Games. In addition to all-new announcements, the showcase will feature reveals from titles including Disney Dreamlight Valley, Marvel’s Midnight Suns, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, and a sneak peek at the upcoming Marvel ensemble game from Skydance New Media. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Thymesia review: A bargain bin Bloodborne, for better and for worse
    It’s not hard to find something to like about Thymesia, the new souls-like from OverBorder Studio. Your overall feelings on the game, however, will be dictated by how much you end up enjoying its best qualities. Thymesia is a Souls-like action RPG set in a Bloodborne-esque world whose people sought to better their lives through chemistry alchemy. Only, instead of using it sparingly, their unbridled reliance on it left their kingdom in ruins. You play as Corvus, an amnesiac plague doctor of sorts, who may have had a hand in the creation of a concoction that could save the kingdom, and put an end to experimentation with alchemy. But his memory of the ingredients is shaky, so you go around the game’s three main zones in search of – effectively – lore that helps you piece it all together, and hopefully arrive at the right formula. Read more  ( 21 min )
    Fortnite x Dragon Ball crossover event adds Goku Vegeta to the game today
    Fortnite is getting a hefty power level increase today, as the Dragon Ball crossover event has started. This limited time promotion adds Goku, Vegeta, Beerus and Bulma to the game, as well as a variety of exclusive challenges, activities, and rewards for those who jump in. This event has already kicked off and continues until August 30, at which point the quests and Dragon Ball themed content will be phased out. The first thing you’ll notice when booting up Fortnite is a new Power Unleashed tab - this is a power metre that you can push higher and higher by completing a set of limited challenges available for the duration of the event. Filling this up will grant exclusive Dragon Ball cosmetics for you to collect, and completing them all will earn you the Shenron Glider! Read more  ( 16 min )
    Xbox Game Pass gets surprise addition with another indie hit
    If you're attentive enough, you'll have noticed that the game has graced the Xbox services before – it was one of the games that came free with your subscription back in June 2020. It's a similar game to the sublime VA11 Hall-A, if you've ever played that. The game sells itself as a "late-night café game" set in a sorta sci-fi version of Seattle – but it comes with a twist: the city is populated by orcs, humans, elves and other assorted mythical creatures. The game weaves in and out of the barista experience, casting you as both a coffee expert, and a friendly ear for the human and inhuman residents of the alt-reality city. Set against an aural backdrop of lo-fi beats, and brimming with cosy and incessently pleasant converastions, the game celebrates making you a mute observer, looking in on the lives of many people coming and going from your humble store. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Hard Drive Quarterly Sales Volume Dropped 15% Due to Weakening Demand
    A new report has come in detailing a 15% drop in hard drive sales volume for the past quarter, thanks to weakened demand in the consumer market.  ( 59 min )
    Asus AMD X670E Motherboards Listed, Starting at $670
    AMD X670E-based AM5 motherboards from Asus listed, ready for next-generation Ryzen 7000-series processors and starting at $670.  ( 59 min )
    Chinese Exascale Supercomputer Faces Frontier in Gordon Bell Prize
    The Chinese supercomputer OceanLight has just made it into the top five finalists in the Gordon Bell prize, steadfastly facing the premier US Frontier exascale supercomputer.  ( 59 min )
    Elephant Robotics Release Raspberry Pi Dual-Armed Robot
    Prolific robotics firm releases first robot with two programmable arms.  ( 59 min )
    Intel Arc A380 Graphics Card Listing Shows Up On Newegg
    Intel's Arc A380 is no longer locked behind Chinese borders, with the GPU now apparently shipping to the United States.  ( 59 min )
    Samsung Launches Curved 55-Inch Odyssey Ark Gaming Monitor at $3,499
    Samsung’s curvy big “personal gaming theater” offers thrilling features like cockpit mode, sound dome technology, a remote dial OSD controller, and a $3,499 price tag.  ( 63 min )
    Nvidia to Further Drop Prices of GeForce RTX 30-Series Boards in Coming Weeks
    Nvidia’s Ampere graphics cards are reportedly set to get cheaper in the coming weeks, ahead of the Ada Lovelace RTX 40-series launch.  ( 60 min )
    Das Keyboard MacTigr Review
    The MacTigr is a low-profile wired mechanical keyboard designed specifically for Mac users.  ( 62 min )
    7-Zip Benchmark: Intel Core i9-13900K 60% Faster Compared To 12900K
    A new 7-Zip benchmark result reveals a 60% performance improvement for the 13900K in decompression tests, and 20% in compression tests in comparison to the 12900K.  ( 59 min )
    AMD’s Ryzen 7000 Launch Event Scheduled for Aug 29
    The event has been dubbed “Together We Advance PCs,” and you can expect a fairly deep dive into Zen 4 and AM5 platform advances and what they will mean to PC enthusiasts and DIYers.  ( 59 min )
    Raspberry Pi Pico Powers Pocket Gaming Console
    Grgo Mariani has created a pocket-sized gaming console using the Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller as its main processor.  ( 62 min )
    ASRock Z690 Extreme WiFi 6E Review: Best Z690 Under $200?
    ASRock’s Z690 Extreme WiFi is a well-rounded option in the crowded $200 space. It offers three M.2 sockets, eight SATA ports, dual Ethernet ports, integrated Wi-Fi 6E, and a quality last-gen audio codec. The all-black look and bright RGB lightning help the Extreme stand out inside your chassis.  ( 68 min )
  • Open

    Proton 7.0-4 is live bringing more compatibility to Linux and Steam Deck
    Valve has today released Proton 7.0-4 after a short period in public testing, this brings further compatibility of Windows games on Linux desktop and Steam Deck.  ( 4 min )
    Fab deck-builder Across the Obelisk out now under Paradox Arc publishing
    Across the Obelisk is a fantastic deck-builder that just left Early Access, as the first game under Paradox Interactive's new publishing label Paradox Arc.  ( 4 min )
    Twin-stick shooter Titan Shell looks intense and will be supported on Linux
    Titan Shell is an in-development twin-stick shooter from Meatbag Studio that blends in features from roguelikes / rogue-lites to offer a pretty interesting experience not many such shooters give you.  ( 4 min )
    Axiom Verge 2 lands on Steam with Linux support and Steam Deck Verified
    Axiom Verge 2 from Thomas Happ Games has jumped over from the Epic Store to Steam and it comes with Native Linux support and it is also Steam Deck Verified!  ( 4 min )
    Dreamed Away is an upcoming emotional action-adventure RPG set in France
    Love your cute and colourful little adventures? Dreamed Away from Nicolas Petton / Pineapple Works looks like it's worth keeping an eye on.  ( 4 min )
    Backpack Hero is an inventory management roguelike and my new favourite game
    Backpack Hero is a dungeon crawling roguelike where you need to constantly sort out your small backpack and it's absolutely sucked me in.  ( 5 min )
    Couch-gaming Linux distro ChimeraOS 34 released
    ChimeraOS continues to improve the couch-gaming experience for Linux with ChimeraOS 34 out now and there's quite a number of improvements and fixes.  ( 4 min )
    Steam finally gets easier to grab free stuff
    It seems Valve has made it easier to claim free stuff on the Steam store, so you no longer need to quickly try to install something free and back out of it to claim it.  ( 4 min )
    Valve improves Steam Deck offline mode with more to come
    Valve has put out a small upgrade for the Steam Deck in the Beta and Preview channels that seeks to improve the offline mode.  ( 4 min )
  • Open

    Shadow Warrior dev's vampiric cowboy shooter Evil West delayed to November
    Evil West, the vampire-tinged cowboy shooter from Shadow Warrior reboot developer Flying Wild Hogs, has been delayed again, and is now scheduled to launch on 22nd November. Announced back in 2020, Evil West follows the gunslinging adventures of Jesse Rentier as he prowls the American frontier in search of vampiric monstrosities to destroy. It all unfolds in classic third-person action style, and is playable either co-operatively with a friend or solo. Previously, Evil West was due to launch on 20th September (and before that late 2021), but a Twitter statement shared by Focus Entertainment today explained the publisher and Flying Wild Hogs have made the decision to shift the game's release back to November in order to "ensure [it] reaches its full potential". Read more  ( 15 min )
    Life is Strange's delayed Switch remaster collection finally arrives in September
    After a lengthy delay, Square Enix's two-game Life is Strange remaster bundle finally has a release date on Switch, and will be launching on 27th September. Square's new Switch bundle - which goes by the name Life is Strange: Arcadia Bay Collection, rather than the Remastered Collection moniker used on other platforms - includes remastered versions of developer Don't Nod's much-loved original Life is Strange and its Deck-Nine-developed prequel Life is Strange: Before the Storm. This new collection - which was originally due to launch on 1st February alongside other platforms before recieving a last-minute delay - retains the same acclaimed narrative core as the originals, following the supernaturally imbued adventures of teenage friends Max and Chloe, but promises a range of enhancements on Switch. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Files in Spider-Man Remastered suggest Sony may release its own PC launcher
    Since its release last week, fans have been diving into the files of Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered. It has turned out some interesting stuff, such as a potential scrapped multiplayer mode for the game. Most recently, however, dataminers have found evidence that Sony is looking into releasing its own PC launcher in the future (via VGC), with references to such a project being tucked away inside Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered. While this has not been officially confirmed, it does tie in with other speculation across the web. Earlier in the year, a job listing for PlayStation was advertised, with the company looking for a "director, product management - PC game experiences". Read more  ( 16 min )
    Here is some new footage from the remake of the XIII remake
    After a pretty dismal launch in 2020 that was widely panned by gamers and critics alike, French studio Tower Five has been hard at work remaking the XIII remake. Now, we have been given a look at some of the new gameplay for the cel-shaded shooter, which shows over three minutes of footage from the SPADS Military Base sequence. And, in my opinion, it certainly looks better. You can see it for yourself below. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Next wave of Xbox Game Pass games includes Immortality, Immortals Fenyx Rising and Tinykin
    It's time for another wave of Xbox Game Pass games! Out today on cloud, console and PC is Coffee Talk, a coffee-brewing and heart-to-heart talking simulator set in an alternative Seattle. Next week, on 23rd August, cloud, console and PC get Midnight Fight Express, a "brutal and hyper-kinetic brawling ballet". That's one of those day-one Game Pass releases - more of those to come. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Rollerdrome review - Roll7 delivers a game of impossible style
    Is it possible to quantify cool? Rollerdrome, the latest from the skatemasters of Roll7, certainly thinks so. Skating games have always had scores, and have always had that essential breezy nonchalance at their heart, but Rollerdrome feels like the first to really make the coolness so explicit. This is a game where, locked into a series of retrofuture colosseums, you chain elaborate roller skate tricks while dodging rockets, ducking batons and pounding shotgun pellets into riot shields in ultra-slow motion. Coolness is something that evaporates as soon as you say it out loud, so of course it's never mentioned, but the end-of-round score could be for nothing else. Mark me down as a square, though, because I am pretty terrible at Rollerdrome, despite its efforts to convince me otherwise.…  ( 18 min )
    A decade after launch, Guild Wars 2 finally comes to Steam next week
    Long-running MMO Guild Wars 2 finally hits Steam on 23rd August. The Steam launch marks the first time ArenaNet's Guild Wars 2, which launched a decade ago on 28th August 2012, is available on a third-party platform. Players on both Steam and the NCSoft first-party Guild Wars 2 client will be able to play together on the same servers, NCSoft confirmed. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Quaint city builder Townscaper coming to VR in October
    The idyllic, peaceful city builder Townscaper will make its way to VR in October. From 6th October, the game will be available on Meta Quest VR and PICO headsets. A trailer below shows the VR version in action. Read more  ( 14 min )
    The gorgeous Lego Bricktales comes out on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and PC later in 2022
    The gorgeous Lego Bricktales comes out on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and PC during the fourth quarter of 2022 (Oct-Dec). Lego Bricktales is a diorama-based construction puzzler from ClockStone, the maker of the popular Bridge Constructor series. You journey across five different LEGO-themed biomes and use a brick-by-brick building mechanic to solve puzzles. Expect plenty of physics-based puzzles, such as building cranes and gyrocopters. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Grounded developer announces new 'Shared World' feature
    A new and long-awaited feature for Grounded has been revealed by developer Obsidian. This feature, known as 'Shared World', allows players to create and "own" up to three shared worlds (hence the name) which will then be stored in the cloud. These can then be shared with friends and family to enable them to host that world "while you are not online". In turn, each player can also have up to 50 worlds shared with them at any given time. In addition to this, Obsidian states that any player's standard worlds can be changed to a shared world if they wish. This is done through the game's save and load menu. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Looks like Beetlejuice and the Wicked Witch of the West are coming to MultiVersus
    Yesterday, Gremlins antagonist Stripe and DC's Black Adam leaked ahead of their official reveal by Warner Bros. as coming to MultiVersus' eclectic roster. Well, now we have another leak, and it appears that more unexpected characters will also be joining the brawler further down the road, with voice lines for both The Wizard of Oz's Wicked Witch of the West and BeetleJuice being found in the game's files. As shared by MultiVersus Twitter user AisulMV (the same leaker who discovered hints about a potential feature which will allow players to share their battle pass progress), the lines of dialogue found appear to be setting MultiVersus up for a spooky season. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Doom is now playable on a tractor
    It's something of an industry joke that iconic 90s shooter Doom is playable on almost anything. Now it's playable on a tractor. There's a more serious background to this, though. As Wired reports, a hacker known as Sick Codes presented a new jailbreak for John Deere & Co. tractors at the DefCon security conference in Las Vegas. Digital locks are imposed on vehicles by manufacturers, preventing farmers from modifying and repairing their own equipment. The right-to-repair has proven controversial in the farming industry, but Sick Codes has found a workaround. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Paradox doubling price of Crusader Kings 3 DLC
    Paradox, the developer of strategy game Crusader Kings 3, is doubling the price of the game's DLC packs. Currently priced at $6.99 (£5.19 in the UK), the Flavour Packs will cost $12.99 from 13th September. In a forum post (thanks TheGamer), the developer said it was "altering the prices of our Flavour Packs (Northern Lords and Fate of Iberia) to reflect the overall value of this kind of content moving forward". Read more  ( 15 min )
    Tokyo Game Show VR 2022 to feature Kojima Productions, Square Enix and more
    Square Enix and Kojima Productions will be taking part in the Tokyo Game Show's upcoming VR event. Bandai Namco, Capcom and Konami, to name but a few, will also be exhibiting at the event, which takes place between 15th and 18th September. The site for the show itself is shrouded in mystery for now, with the organisers simply teasing the stage for this event is a "dungeon" and the following text: Read more  ( 15 min )
    SteamVR updates notes include literal bugs
    Yesterday, Valve updated its SteamVR software, for use on VR headsets, and had some unusual content in the update notes. In the full list, the usual gamut of notes that you'd expect like bug fixes and quality of life improvements are detailed. But above all that, there's a literal bug fix. For all you insect lovers. Read more  ( 15 min )
    The Fortnite x Dragon Ball crossover is now live
    As teased last week, the Dragon Ball and Fortnite crossover is now live. Four iconic characters are available in the game - Son Goku, Vegeta, Bulma, and Beerus - as well as a number of new quests and modes. Players will now find a new Power Unleashed tab containing special limited-time quests and rewards that will track your rising Power Level. There are seven sets of quests and with each completed, players will earn a Dragon Ball - collect all seven to earn the Shenron Glider. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Wave Race 64 splashes on to Nintendo Switch Online this week
    Wave Race 64 is the next N64 game to be added to Nintendo Switch Online. The game will be available for Expansion Pack members from 19th August. Released in 1996, the jet ski racer was a launch window release for the console and was praised for its realistic water physics. And yes, you can ride a dolphin. Read more  ( 14 min )
    Rocket League – There’s still grip on these tyres
    My introduction to Rocket League was suitably chaotic. A friend had secured beta access, setting up 4v4 matches with six other people across two TVs. We played for hours. Between the unlikely goals, great assists, and questionable demolition tactics, I loved every moment. There isn’t a game that encapsulates the “just one more round” mentality better than Rocket League. It's currently my most played game of all time, each explosive match calling out for another, and I wasn't alone in being hooked. Psyonix knew it had a hit, partnering with Sony to make it a “free” PS Plus game at launch, sealing the deal for many. Seven years later, Rocket League remains a winner. Rocket League splits players into teams and asks them to score goals - using rocket powered cars rather than feet, and employing a ball that absolutely towers over them on the pitch. Competing to score the most points before time runs out – if you’re drawing after 5 mins, say hello to overtime and sudden death – you’ve got a few tricks at your disposal. Boost pads are evenly spread across the field to provide a speed advantage, for instance, letting us shoot at pace or demolish an opponent’s vehicle if we collide at max speed. If you fancy trying something more technical, jump up and use that boost for an aerial shot. As you might have gathered, Rocket League is primarily multiplayer focused, placing heavy emphasis on team strategy and player rotation. You won’t find set positions like in a football match, though setting up assists from the midfield or staying behind as goalkeeper often feels natural. Co-ordinating with teammates is key and victory always feels better together. Read more  ( 19 min )
    Disney promises "sneak peek" at Amy Hennig's Marvel game in September
    Disney has announced it's hosting a game-focused digital showcase this September, with a "sneak peek" at Amy Hennig's new Marvel game promising to be a highlight. The Disney & Marvel Games Showcase, which is running as part of this year's D23 Expo, will be streamed on Friday, 9th September, at 9pm in the UK/1pm PT. It's promising "all-new announcements" alongside additional details on previously revealed games. There'll be more from Disney Dreamlight Valley, for instance, alongside additional news on Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga and the recently delayed Marvel's Midnight Suns. The real draw, though, unless you really love your village life sims, is a glimpse of Skydance New Media and Hennig's "Marvel ensemble" game. Read more  ( 15 min )
  • Open

    Proton 7.0-4 Released For Steam Play With Many Game Fixes, More Playable Titles
    Valve has just released Proton 7.0-4 as their newest downstream of Wine that powers Steam Play for enjoying many Windows games on Linux with great success for the Linux desktop, the Steam Deck, and more...  ( 4 min )
    AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5965WX Memory Scaling Benchmarks On Linux
    For those weighing whether to pursue the full eight memory channel configuration for the new Ryzen Threadripper 5000 series or starting out with just four or six memory modules, here are some reference benchmarks across four, six, and eight memory channels with the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5965WX 24-core processor while running Ubuntu Linux.  ( 4 min )
    Microsoft + Canonical Announce Native .NET 6 For Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
    The latest partnership between Microsoft and Canonical is an announcement today of native .NET availability for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS hosts as well as containers...  ( 4 min )
    AMD CPU Microcode Loading On Linux Being Fixed Up To Be Per-Thread
    Up to this point loading updated CPU microcode on AMD processors under Linux has checked just to ensure every physical CPU core was loaded with the new microcode but not sibling threads for SMT processors. While logically that makes sense, it turns out some AMD microcode updates do carry out per-thread modifications that means the microcode updating needs to be carried out on every thread. A Linux fix is on its way to the kernel to adjust that behavior...  ( 5 min )
    NVIDIA Ampere GA103 Support For Nouveau Being Sent In For Linux 6.0
    As part of today's "drm-misc-fixes" pull request, NVIDIA Ampere GA103 GPU support is set to be added to the Nouveau DRM driver with Linux 6.0...  ( 5 min )
    Real-Time "PREEMPT_RT" Work Down To Just 50 Patches Atop Linux 6.0-rc1
    Following Sunday's release of Linux 6.0-rc1, yesterday saw the release of 6.0-rc1-rt1 as the set of patches for providing real-time kernel support atop the upstream code-base. There is just roughly 50 patches to go until the PREEMPT_RT functionality is mainlined!..  ( 5 min )
    OpenSUSE Developers Continue Discussing x86_64 Microarchitecture Feature Levels
    Ahead of the upcoming openSUSE/SUSE Adaptable Linux Platform (ALP), whether to raise the x86_64 micro-architecture feature level required by the Linux OS continues to be evaluated and what options there are for making use of newer x86_64 instruction set extensions without necessarily forcing tightened CPU requirements / eliminating old hardware support...  ( 5 min )
    Lenovo Yoga C630 Snapdragon Laptop Seeing Fresh Linux Improvements
    When it comes to Linux on Arm laptops the recent excitement has been around the Asahi Linux porting work for the Apple M2 MacBooks and Linux 6.0 supporting the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen3 and the flagship Lenovo ThinkPad X13s Arm laptop. Launched a few years ago though was the Lenovo Yoga C630 powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 and thanks now to the work of Linaro that older Arm laptop is seeing Linux support improvements...  ( 5 min )
    LZ4 v1.9.4 Achieves 20~70% Speedups For Some CPUs & Configurations
    LZ4 v1.9.4 is out today as the first point release in nearly two years for this BSD-licensed, speedy, lossless compression algorithm...  ( 4 min )
  • Open

    Mordhaus medeltida slagsmål är på väg till konsol
    Efter tre års exklusivitet på pc.  ( 6 min )
    Squirrel with a Gun är precis vad det låter som
    Livsfarligt och urgulligt på samma gång.  ( 6 min )
    Wave Race 64 är nästa spel att släppas till Nintendo Switch Online
    Så länge man äger dess "Expansion Pack".  ( 6 min )
    FZ Play - Wakkaah spelar Multiversus och tävlar ut bonuskoder!
    Kändisslagsmål i kvällens stream.  ( 6 min )
    I Grounded kan spelarna dela världar med varandra
    Efterlängtad online-funktion presenterad.  ( 6 min )
    I Grounded kan spelarna delar världar med varandra
    Efterlängtad online-funktion presenterad.  ( 6 min )
    Guild Wars 2 släpps på Steam nästa vecka
    MMORPG-klassikern fyller 10 år.  ( 7 min )
    Fans samlas för att buggstäda Starfield - trots att det inte har releasedatum
    Lågt förtroende för Bethesda och spelmotorn.  ( 7 min )
    Uncharted-Amys Marvel-spel visas i september
    Spelnyheter från Marvel och Disney visas om drygt tre veckor.  ( 6 min )
    Försenad leverans: Deliver Us Mars skjuts upp till nästa år
    Uppföljaren till Deliver Us the Moon får vänta.  ( 6 min )
    Se gameplay från den tillfixade versionen av den totalsågade XIII-remaken
    Har de lyckats rädda hafsverket?  ( 6 min )
    Playstation-video sammanfattar handlingen i God of War inför Ragnarök
    Om man inte har tid med en genomspelning innan november.  ( 6 min )
    Effektstudion Weta jobbar på ett Sagan om Ringen-spel
    I samarbete med Private Division.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Snabbtest: Grafikprestanda i Marvel's Spider‑Man Remastered
    Spindelmannen svingar sig över från Playstation till PC i ett av de senaste årens mest hyllade actionspel. Calle sparkar igång redaktionens testrigg för ett snabbt prestandatest.  ( 11 min )
    AMD avtäcker Ryzen 7000 den 30 augusti
    AMD tar bladet från munnen och bekräftar det officiella datumet för avtäckandet av processorerna i Ryzen 7000-serien, där dessa ska presenteras under ett livesänt evenemang.  ( 5 min )
    Android 13 släppt skarpt
    Efter månader av utvecklarversioner och betatest har Google nu släppt Android 13 skarpt till Pixel-telefoner.  ( 5 min )
    AMD uppges försena lanseringen av Ryzen 7000
    Mitten av september blir slutet av september när det röda laget påstås vilja krascha Intels avtäckande av Core 13000-seriens processorer.  ( 6 min )
    AMD ryktas försena lanseringen av Ryzen 7000
    Mitten av september blir slutet av september när det röda laget sägs vilja krascha Intels avtäckande av Core 13000-seriens processorer.  ( 6 min )
    Snabbkoll: Är du en kabelhoarder?
    Kabellådan™ är den ökända lådan där alla äldre kablar från elektronisk utrustning av olika slag hamnar då kablarna kanske kan komma till användning i framtiden. Men oftast inte. Hur ser hoarderläget ut hos dig?  ( 5 min )
    Samsung Odyssey Ark är böjd jätteskärm med extra allt
    Ljusstark panel, hög upplösning, vertikalt läge och en kraftig krökning är några av egenskaperna som Samsung lyfter fram hos det påkostade flaggskeppet.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Untitled
    No content preview  ( 2 min )
  • Open

    Bits from Debian: Debian turns 29!
    Today is Debian's 29th anniversary. We recently wrote about some ideas to celebrate the DebianDay, and several events have been planned in more than 14 locations. You can join the party or organise something yourselves too! Today is also an opportunity for you to start or resume your contributions to Debian. For example, you can have a look at our list of Debian Teams, install the how-can-i-help package and see if there is a bug in any of the software that you use that you can help to fix, start designing your artwork candidate for the next release, contribute small tips on how to install Debian on your machines to our wiki pages https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/, or put a Debian live image in an USB memory and give it to some person near you, who still didn't discover Debian. Our favorite operating system is the result of all the work we do together. Thanks to everybody who has contributed in these 29 years, and happy birthday Debian!  ( 2 min )
  • Open

    Marktext is an Excellent Editor Even for Those Who Don’t Know Markdown
    I have experimented with a number of markdown editors and there are plenty of good ones there. However, I took an instant liking to Marktext. Here's why!  ( 25 min )
  • Open

    Comic for 2022.08.16 - What Do You See
    New Cyanide and Happiness Comic  ( 5 min )

  • Open

    Warning: Apple could be trying to cripple Jamf
    Tech watchdog group worries iGiant will 'Sherlock' device manager Apple is preparing to compete unfairly against enterprise device management firm Jamf, an advocacy group claimed on Monday, and has asked regulators to take a stand.…  ( 6 min )
    Sony camera feature hopes to make digital images immune to secret manipulation
    Cryptographically signs pics – but you'll pay $2,500 before you've bought a lens Sony has announced a new camera feature that the electronics goliath claims will make digital images immune to secret manipulation and forgery.…  ( 5 min )
    CIA accused of illegally spying on Americans visiting Assange in embassy
    Lawyers, journalists sue super-snoop agency and Spanish security biz The CIA illegally spied on US citizens while they visited WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, a lawsuit filed today has claimed.…  ( 5 min )
    Artemis I will get 3 launch attempts after termination system extension agreed
    Rolling back to the pad tomorrow, the SLS might finally take flight in August NASA's huge Space Launch System (SLS) will get its three launch attempts in the coming weeks after officials approved an extension to validation of the Flight Termination System from 20 to 25 days.…  ( 4 min )
    Dutch authorities arrest 29-year-old dev with suspected ties to Tornado Cash
    The arrest comes days after US Treasury levies sanctions against the crypto mixing service Dutch authorities have arrested a software developer suspected of working with Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency mixing service that only two days earlier was sanctioned by the US government for allegedly laundering money for ransomware operators and other cybercriminals.…  ( 5 min )
    US bans export of tech used in 3nm chip production on security grounds
    Not mentioned: China. Obvious target: China – even if the country hasn't designed advanced chips The United States is formally banning the export of four technologies tied to semiconductor manufacturing, calling the protection of the items "vital to national security." …  ( 4 min )
    More datacenters coming to Ireland, despite energy concerns
    South Dublin County Council ban on buildouts set to be overturned by government Trouble is brewing in Ireland as a ban on datacenter buildouts in the Dublin area has reportedly been challenged by one developer, while Amazon has now been granted permission for two new facilities near the city amid growing concern over the amount of energy bit barns consume.…  ( 4 min )
    Microsoft's Secure Boot fix sends some PCs into BitLocker Recovery
    Have your BitLocker key handy when updating, but maybe not on a Post-it stuck to the screen, OK? Windows users are reporting BitLocker problems after installing last week's security update for Secure Boot.…  ( 4 min )
    US CHIPS Act: Getting the funding is just the start
    Plan to regain semiconductor production market share may be a case of too little, too late Analysis  The long-awaited US CHIPS Act has finally been signed into law by President Biden, unlocking $52 billion in funding to boost the American semiconductor industry as a part of the broader $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act. Now the industry has to make good on its promises in a market where inflation is rapidly stifling demand.…  ( 7 min )
    Intel hands over nearly 5,000 patents in deal with IP management outfit
    Newly formed Tahoe Research Limited will seek to license them to third parties Intel has entered into an agreement with IPValue Management Group that sees nearly 5,000 patents transferred to a newly formed company within the group that will seek to license them to third parties.…  ( 5 min )
    Epson says ink pad saturation behind 'end of service life' warning on inkjet printers
    Directs customers to Maintenance Reset Utility so they can continue to print Epson has clarified the dread "end of service life" inkjet printer warning with an updated support page directing users to its Maintenance Reset Utility after critics complained about repairability.…  ( 3 min )
    Virgin Orbit trims losses, eyes two final launches for the year
    Second quarter revenues at zero, though should jump to $12m following successful flights from Cornwall Virgin Orbit is burning less money, although it won't be launching quite as many rockets as originally hoped.…  ( 4 min )
    When will the UK take another giant leap into space?
    Tim Peake set to return to ESA as the race to first vertical launch from British soil continues Feature  It promises to be a busy few years for British spaceflight. Astronaut Tim Peake is due to return to the European Space Agency (ESA) and the UK's first vertical launches are set to take place in Scotland.…  ( 5 min )
    Nuclear power is the climate superhero too nervous to wear its cape
    Of all the non-carbon energy options we have, this is the only one which can keep the lights on Opinion  What's GIF got to do with nuclear reactors? Commercial development of atomic power plants had largely stopped by the 1980s; even so you could do better than Deluxe Paint for your blueprints. Yet the connection is much more modern, to do with projects like the revival of molten salt tech as a new hope for zero-emission power.…  ( 6 min )
    Keep your cables tidy. You never know when someone might need some wine
    Brute force and ignorance does not win the day Who, Me?  We've all heard the one about the cleaner in the hospital pulling the wrong plug. But managing to push back the schedule by months through sheer brute force? Welcome to Who, Me?…  ( 4 min )
    China's internet regulator details algorithms used by local Big Tech players
    Beijing lifts the lid on how Alibaba, Douyin, Tencent, Baidu do business – and censor content Beijing's internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), has released information about the algorithms that some of the nation's biggest tech companies use to make their services work.…  ( 4 min )
    Samsung heir pardoned after doing time for bribery
    Government said they need the Samsung boss back at work to deal with South Korea’s looming economic crisis South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol issued a widely anticipated pardon for Samsung heir and vice chairman Lee Jae-yong that came into effect today.…  ( 4 min )
    Indian military ready to put long-range quantum key distribution on the line
    Local startup can make it happen over 150km India's military has celebrated the nation's Independence Day by announcing it will adopt locally developed quantum key distribution (QKD)technology that can operate across distances of 150km.…  ( 4 min )
    Apple says 2017 MacBooks don't have FlexGate defect. Aussie tribunal orders a fix anyway
    Presiding officer was not impressed by Cupertino's arguments or behavior Apple has been ordered to repair a MacBook Pro that displays all the symptoms of FlexGate – the syndrome of screen defects that the company has previously repaired for free – but which the company does not believe has the problem.…  ( 6 min )
    Black Hat and DEF CON visitors differ on physical risk management
    COVID, flood surfing, crowds – what to pick? Black Hat  As last week's hacker summer camps would down it's clear that attendee numbers are still well down on the pre-COVID days, although things are recovering.…  ( 4 min )
    Linux 6.0 debuts, missing some Rusty bits and a magic mushroom reference
    Don't read the diffstat too closely, says Linus Torvalds – it's mostly another massive AMD update Emperor Penguin Linus Torvalds has released the first release candidate for Linux 6.0, but doesn't mind what you call it.…  ( 4 min )
    Elon Musk wrote article for China's internet regulator, hinted at aged care robots
    PLUS Vietnam's massive infosec push; Philippines telco fight; Australia dumps COVID app; and more Asia in Brief  Elon Musk has written an article for the Cyberspace Administration of China's flagship magazine.…  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    This RTX 3090 Ti is under £1200, some £691 below its UK RRP
    The RTX 3090 Ti is the fastest consumer graphics card Nvidia has ever made - but the rumoured imminent arrival of their RTX 4090 graphics card means that it's now going for nearly £700 below its original £1879 UK RRP. In fact, you can now pick up one of these graphics cards for less than £1200, just £100 more than the launch price of the RTX 2080 Ti for around 75% more performance. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Razer's excellent Huntsman Mini Analog keyboard is just £98 today
    The Razer Huntsman Mini Analog is one of a vanishingly small number of keyboards with analogue switches, meaning each key knows exactly how far down it's being pressed. That unlocks the door to some unique capabilities, from adjusting the sensitivity of the keyboard on the fly to using the WASD keys as a thumbstick replacement in racing games. It's also just a damn fine mechanical keyboard, with a comfortable 60% size, bright RGB lighting and premium PBT keycaps. You normally pay a lot for this kind of quality and functionality - £150, in fact - but today the keyboard has dropped to its lowest ever price of £97.94 over at Amazon UK. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Can turn-based cyberpunk RPG Keylocker unlock its true musical potential?
    Keylocker is all about the rhythm. If you’re escaping a dystopian prison system where you can pay to upgrade to invisible handcuffs, your escape may as well have a jamming soundtrack. But you'll have to bring your own, because the world in Keylocker hates that stuff. Like in Footloose, music is an illegal activity. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Sci-fi sequel Deliver Us Mars delayed until 2023
    Sci-fi puzzle adventure Deliver Us Mars has seen its launch window moved from September to next February. Devs KeokeN Interactive put out a statement crediting the delay to ensuring the game is “the best it can be”. The game was first revealed back in March, and then announced for a 2022 release in June. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Vikings On Trampolines is the next game from the Owlboy team
    Vikings aren’t really known for their acrobatic prowess but Owlboy developers D-Pad Studio are limbering up for their next indie game, Vikings On Trampolines. It’s based on an award-winning experimental game the team produced back in 2011. Witness the sheer Nordic bounciness in the trailer below. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Doom can now run on a jailbroken tractor
    The greatest legacy left by humanity for alien archaeologists to find in the aeons to come will be millions of random devices running id Software’s pioneering FPS Doom. The latest such piece of kit is the display from a John Deere tractor, jailbroken and fragging away at demons at this past weekend’s DEF CON hacking conference in Las Vegas. The tractor computer was hacked by Sick Codes, who’s trying to draw attention to farming equipment manufacturers who lock down their products to prevent owners from repairing them. Read more  ( 16 min )
    In Mindhack you can literally change criminal minds. But should you?
    Mindhack, an upcoming visual novel adventure, opens in a jail cell, as a criminal named Unid is brought before you by a pair of armed security guards. Your reputation precedes you: before the accused can even sit down, they call out your unusual ability to hack into the minds of people to ‘patch’ their flaws, turning their nefarious intentions into fields of flowers. But it’s ok, isn’t it? After all, the person in front of you has committed a crime and must be rehabilitated; reckless driving, hit and run, and arson. So, you get to work. Talking to Unid allows you to build a rapport and understand their motivations. You learn about their past. They talk of their difficult childhood, pets, a lack of support - broken systems that left them behind and put them on their current path. It doesn’t matter. You have a job to do. And now, with that bit of knowledge, you’ve found the 'bug' in their programming. After initiating a hack on their brain, you eradicate this flaw, forcefully transforming their mind into a paradise of purity. Unid will never commit another crime again. Have you done the right thing? Read more  ( 17 min )
    Screenshot Saturday Mondays: swashbuckling chandelier murder
    Every weekend, indie devs show off current work on Twitter's #screenshotsaturday tag. And every Monday, I bring you a selection of these snaps and clips. This weekend, my eye was caught by swashbuckling chandelier murder, a bumpy train ride, and lots of good colours. Come see! Read more  ( 17 min )
    Genshin Impact's 3.0 update takes us to the dreamless region of Sumeru in August
    Free-to-play open world ARPG Genshin Impact updates to version 3.0 on August 24th, developers HoYoverse have revealed. The update is rather fancily called The Morn A Thousand Roses Brings, and introduces the new ley-line-filled Sumeru region. You can scout ahead by watching the extremely dramatic trailer below. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Your troupe of brawling, eccentric performers packs a wallop in Circus Electrique
    Instead of commanding a group of rugged, blood-soaked mercenaries on a turn-based death crawl through unimaginable horrors, how about a neo-Victorian circus troupe brawling with biomechatronic Londoners? That's Circus Electrique, a turn-based RPG that's much more lighthearted than its Darkest Dungeon counterpart (and seemingly main inspiration). But after playing a preview of the game’s first mission, there's more than meets the eye in this part steampunk RPG, part circus tycoon management sim. You play as Amelia, a young, bold journalist returning to London to cover the grand re-opening of the Circus Electrique. A metaphorical spanner gets lobbed into the works, however, as the ceremony is interrupted with news that London’s citizens have started attacking each other (more than your average fisticuffs to get on the tube). Oddly, this doesn’t seem to have affected Amelia and your motley circus troupe, who venture out into London’s dangerous streets to find answers. Read more  ( 19 min )
    DC antihero Black Adam and Gremlins bad boy Stripe are coming to MultiVersus
    Franchise mash-up brawler MultiVersus slams into season one today, despite only recently being postponed indefinitely. Although nothing has been announced yet, it appears that DC Comics supervillain Black Adam and Gremlins antagonist Stripe are new characters being teased for the game’s roster of fighters. Players are sharing screenshots and footage of ads for MultiVersus that show off the gruesome twosome. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    1,900 Signal users’ phone numbers exposed by Twilio phishing
    No message, profile, or other data exposed—but SMS remains a weakness.  ( 5 min )
    Scientists bent frickin’ laser beams to create this detailed image of a cat
    "We can use this system to do quantum simulations of electrons and superconductivity."  ( 6 min )
    Apple ad exec wants to more than double ad revenue with new ads across iOS
    Apple's ads business has been a stop-and-go affair, but it's ready to go again.  ( 5 min )
    Google Maps accused of leading users to fake abortion clinics
    Advertisers have to verify abortion services, but not businesses, on Google Maps.  ( 6 min )
    Intel turns to code translation to run old DirectX9 games on its newest GPUs
    DirectX9 is still in relatively wide use, given that it's 20 years old.  ( 5 min )
    No, seriously, NASA’s Space Launch System is ready to take flight
    The rocket may launch just two weeks from now.  ( 5 min )
    California to consider keeping last nuclear plant open
    Move would help it meet its carbon emissions plans.  ( 6 min )
    Rebuilding a once-great racing name: The return of Lola Cars
    Lola built some of the best racing cars in the world but went bust in 2012.  ( 6 min )
    Google ships Android 13 to Pixels; adds customization options, spatial audio
    Not a massive overhaul, but it adds Material You features, Bluetooth LE Audio, & more.  ( 5 min )
    Update Zoom for Mac now to avoid root-access vulnerability
    Feature you'd normally want for secure software opened a huge hole.  ( 5 min )
    NFL Blitz arcade games will relaunch as Arcade1Up cabinet exclusive
    Three-game collection for $599 will have some unfortunate edits.  ( 6 min )
    Stacey Morgan recounts hitting “the wall” during her husband’s spaceflight
    "He isn't pale; he is gray. He doesn't look tired; he looks ancient."  ( 6 min )
    Machine learning, concluded: Did the “no-code” tools beat manual analysis?
    In the finale of our experiment, we look at how the low/no-code tools performed.  ( 6 min )
    A new jailbreak for John Deere tractors rides the right-to-repair wave
    Exploit now provides root access to two popular models of the company’s farm equipment.  ( 6 min )
    Bacteria fight off viruses with a protein like one of ours
    Eukaryotes, archaea, and bacteria share a set of proteins that block many viruses.  ( 7 min )
  • Open

    Qualcomm Posts "QAIC" DRM Accelerator Driver For Linux
    After Qualcomm announced their Cloud AI 100 Accelerator back in 2019, in 2020 during the early days of the pandemic they posted a Linux driver for this accelerator. That driver didn't get picked up for the mainline Linux kernel and two years later there still is little fanfare around the Qualcomm AI Cloud Accelerator hardware. However, now they have posted a new Linux driver that goes the DRM driver route...  ( 5 min )
    Android 13 Sources Released To AOSP
    Google announced today that the Android 13 sources have been published to the Android Open-Source Project as part of officially releasing this newest version of Android...  ( 4 min )
    GNOME 43 Beta Released With More GTK 4 Porting, Other Desktop Improvements
    The beta of GNOME 43 is now available for testing ahead of the stable release next month...  ( 5 min )
    Linux 6.0 Supporting New Intel/AMD Hardware, Performance Improvements & Much More
    Yesterday marked the release of Linux 6.0-rc1 and as such the merge window is no over and no more feature work is set to land in this kernel version. Here is my write-up of all the interesting new features and changes/improvements coming for Linux 6.0.  ( 6 min )
    Greg KH Recommends Avoiding Alder Lake Laptops - Intel Webcam Linux Driver Long Ways Out
    Greg Kroah-Hartman as the Linux kernel's stable maintainer and effectively Linus Torvalds' second-in-command has suggested avoiding Intel Alder Lake laptops. While much of the Alder Lake laptop support for Linux is in good shape, the exception is around web cameras. These newer laptops with Intel's latest web-camera tech are not currently supported by the mainline kernel and require proprietary software for use. Some platforms like Ubuntu and ChromeOS are picking up these blobs for now while a proper open-source, upstream solution is likely months -- or likely about one year -- away...  ( 6 min )
    AMD P-State Patches Updated But Miss The Linux 6.0 Merge Window
    AMD today sent out revised patches for improving the AMD P-State CPU frequency scaling Linux driver that aims to provide better power efficiency than the generic ACPI CPUFreq driver that has long been relied upon for AMD processors...  ( 5 min )
    Intel's oneAPI Support Appears To Be In Good Shape For Blender 3.3
    Less than one month away is the release of Blender 3.3 and it looks like Intel's initial oneAPI GPU acceleration is ready and in decent shape for Windows and Linux...  ( 5 min )
    MGLRU v14 Released For Improving Linux Low-Memory Performance
    While Linux 6.0 will bring a lot of shiny new features, Multi-Gen LRU (MGLRU) is one of the anticipated changes that isn't going to land now until Linux 6.1. But in the interim, MGLRU v14 was posted today that re-bases the code against 6.0-rc1 to help facilitate more testing of this kernel change that primarily helps Linux systems under memory pressure...  ( 5 min )
    Linux 6.0-rc1 Released With Exciting Performance Optimizations, New Hardware Support
    After the two week long merge window, Linus Torvalds this afternoon released the first release candidate of Linux 6.0. Over the next roughly two months the Linux 6.0 kernel will stabilize but already from my early testing on various systems it is in nice shape and the features and performance are looking great...  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    How to Transfer a Windows 10 or 11 License to Another PC
    If you're building a new PC, you may be able to use an old Windows key for its OS.  ( 62 min )
    Alder Lake Laptop Webcam Support in Linux is Super Shaky
    A Linux expert has reported that Alder Lake laptops sporting the MIPI IPU6 are suffering from Linux compatibility issues surrounding proprietary drivers. Full open source drivers are a long way away.  ( 59 min )
    Hinged, Dual-Screen Display Coming Soon with Touch Option
    Appeals to potential customers to “save your neck and your desk space,” by opting for this decidedly different dual-24-inch clamshell display on a stand.  ( 60 min )
    New Linux Build Runs Nintendo Switch Games on Arm64 Devices
    The developer decided to go public with this Switch-fan OS work now that the milestone of the first playable commercial game title has been reached.  ( 60 min )
    Nvidia Reportedly Resuming RTX 3080 12GB Production, Thanks To GA102 Over Supply
    Nvidia has reportedly restarted production on its RTX 3080 12GB SKU, as a result of oversupply issues surrounding its GA102 die.  ( 59 min )
    Tiny, 4-Inch Motherboard Can Run a Xeon W Workstation CPU
    A tiny embedded system that supports a range of Intel processors.  ( 62 min )
    Asus ROG Chakram X Review: Gaming Mouse Potential, Squandered
    The Asus ROG Chakram X is a stunning example of a gaming mouse, but has some major issues that should deter just about anyone.  ( 64 min )
  • Open

    GNOME Celebrates 25th Anniversary with Beta Release of Upcoming GNOME 43 Desktop
    GNOME 43 Beta is now available for public testing ahead of the September 21st, 2022, release of the GNOME 43 desktop environment series. Here's what's new since last month's GNOME 43 Alpha release. The post GNOME Celebrates 25th Anniversary with Beta Release of Upcoming GNOME 43 Desktop appeared first on 9to5Linux - do not reproduce this article without permission. This RSS feed is intended for readers, not scrapers.  ( 38 min )
  • Open

    Senaste Gotham Knights-trailern ger oss en titt på Red Hood
    Gothams svar på Rödluvan visar var skåpet ska stå.  ( 6 min )
    Bärbar bilkross: Wreckfest är på väg till mobiler
    Och det är Handygames som tar hand om denna version.  ( 6 min )
    Spider-Man är Playstations näst största Steam-släpp
    Antalet samtidiga spelare var något högre för God of War.  ( 6 min )
    Smiska Wakkaah i Multiversus - vinn boosterkod!
    I tisdagens FZ Play-stream.  ( 6 min )
    Urgamla Ashen Empires skulle släppts på Steam, men... försenas
    Spelet som får WoW: Classic att kännas nytt.  ( 6 min )
    Gratis-PUBG verkar ha varit ett lyft för utgivaren
    ”80 000 nya spelare om dagen”.  ( 6 min )
    Se alla trailers från THQ Digital Showcase
    Skräck, gotik och mycket annat.  ( 9 min )
    Xbox One sålde "mindre än hälften så många enheter som Playstation 4"
    Domstolsdokument bekräftar.  ( 7 min )
    Gothic-remaken ser betydligt bättre ut än demon i nya trailern
    Ta en tur till lägret och ner i gruvorna.  ( 6 min )
    Wreckreation blandar galen racing med galnare banbyggande
    Skapat av gamnla Burnout-utvecklare.  ( 6 min )
    Tempest Rising är realtidsstrategi av den gamla skolan
    Med starka C&C-vibbar.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Even more Steam Deck purchase invites are going out from now
    Valve has confirmed that they are (again) increasing the amount of people that will be invited to purchase a Steam Deck.  ( 4 min )
    Tempest Rising looks like the RTS I've been waiting for
    THQ Nordic, 3D Realms and Slipgate Ironworks recently revealed Tempest Rising an upcoming classic RTS and after watching the trailer I absolutely need this.  ( 4 min )
    Avorion - Into The Rift is an expansive DLC out now for this great space sim
    Probably one of the best spaceship building sandbox games around, Avorion has just grown tremendously with the Into The Rift DLC out now.  ( 4 min )
    Tim Burton inspired adventure game Whateverland launches September 15
    Following from the successful Kickstarter campaign in 2020, Caligari Games have announced their Burton-style point and click adventure will release on September 15.  ( 4 min )
    Kitsune Zero, prequel to upcoming LGBTQ+ platformer Kitsune Tails, releases September 12
    Kitsune Zero is being releases on September 12 as a paid DLC for the free platformer Super Bernie World. This will act as a prequel to the upcoming standalone game Kitsune Tails.  ( 4 min )
    Wine compatibly layer manager Bottles adds vkBasalt improvements, vmtouch cache
    Bottles is easily the most simple way to manage installing and running Windows games and apps on Linux outside of Steam. A new release is out now with plenty of useful tweaks.  ( 4 min )
    The first point-release for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS is now available
    Canonical announced the release of Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS which brings together an updated download with all the bug fixes, updated apps, driver upgrades and more.  ( 4 min )
    Heroic Games Launcher v2.4.0 is out with GOG Cloud Save support
    Heroic Games Launcher enables you to download games on Linux and Steam Deck from both the Epic Store and GOG. A big new release is out now with some massive new features.  ( 4 min )
    Easy Anti-Cheat not working on Linux? Seems a glibc update broke it
    News has been doing the rounds for a little bit about Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) suddenly not working after system updates for some users, turns out it's an issue with glibc.  ( 4 min )
  • Open

    Jonathan Dowland: Temperature monitoring
    Xiaomi Mijia Temperature Sensor I've been having some temperature problems in my house, so I wanted to set up some thermometers which I could read from a computer, and look at trends. I bought a pack of three cheap Xiaomi IoT thermometers. There's some official Xiaomi tooling to access them from smartphones and suchlike, but I wanted something more open. The thermometers have some rudimentary security on them to try and ensure you use the official tooling. This is pretty weak, and the open-source Home Assistant (HA) has support for querying them. I wasn't already running HA and it looked to do more than I needed right now. gathering A friend told me that it was trivial to write custom firmware to the devices. It's so easy you can do it from a web-based flasher: in fact, anyone in range can…  ( 2 min )
    John Goerzen: The Joy of Easy Personal Radio: FRS, GMRS, and Motorola DLR/DTR
    Most of us carry cell phones with us almost everywhere we go. So much so that we often forget not just the usefulness, but even the joy, of having our own radios. For instance: When traveling to national parks or other wilderness areas, family and friends can keep in touch even where there is no cell coverage. It is a lot faster to just push a button and start talking than it is to unlock a phone, open the phone app, select a person, wait for the call to connect, wait for the other person to answer, etc. “I’m heading back.” “OK.” Boom, 5 seconds, done. A phone user wouldn’t have even dialed in that time. A whole group of people can be on the same channel. You can often buy a radio for less than the monthly cost of a cell plan. From my own experience, as a person and a family that enj…
  • Open

    Turns out Xbox One sales were less than half of the PS4's, says Microsoft itself
    In 2016 Microsoft stopped reporting sales figures of the Xbox One, but recent documents from the company have confirmed how little the console sold compared to the PS4. If you remember the early days of the Xbox One, they were a bit of a disaster due to some poor early decisions (that were admittedly quite quickly backtracked), and three years after its release in 2016 Microsoft stopped reporting sales figures. But now as reported by The Verge, in some documents filed to Brazil's national competition regulator, Microsoft has admitted Xbox One sales figures were less than half of the PS4. "Sony has surpassed Microsoft in terms of console sales and installed base, having sold more than twice as many Xbox in the last generation," said Microsoft, as translated from Portuguese by The Verge. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Surprise! Anime characters and Hitler dominate Tower of Fantasy's create-a-character library
    Tower of Fantasy has been popping off in a major way since its launch last week, with the character creation standing out as a major plus for the waves of oncoming gamers exploring the world. Some of the more creatively-minded out there have even uploaded their customised looks to the in-game character lobby, which lets you dress up as well-known characters like Sasuke from Naruto, Jellal from Fairy Tail, and… Adolf Hiter. As it stands right now, Hitler (we could be nice and say Charlie Chaplin) is among some of the most popular preset characters in the game. They’re currently ranked 13th among male characters and 41st overall at 5,209 favourites. This puts them above 2B from Nier Automata, Naruto, and Tanjiro from Demon Slayer. What this means is that right now you at home — yes, you — can take on the world as arguably the world’s most evil man. I actually saw Hitler out in the wild in Tower of Fantasy. I sat and watched as he struggled to throw a water core at a Chowchow plant for around 3 minutes before storming off and fending off some hyenas. Let me tell you, you’ve not played Tower of Fantasy until you’ve seen the leader of the Third Reich do aerial combos in frozen time. Read more  ( 16 min )
    If Gollum and The Rings Of Power isn't enough, there’s a new Lord of the Rings game coming from Weta Workshop
    Lord of the Rings fans should be happy, as Wētā Workshop is officially working on a new game set in the Middle-earth universe. Private Division announced the news today (August 15) and will be on publishing duties for the as-of-yet unnamed title. Last year, a job ad for a producer role at Wētā Workshop was advertised, which was supposed to be for a new project based on a "major worldwide IP." It seems like that IP is in fact Lord of the Rings, which makes a lot of sense considering the studio literally worked on the effects of the original films. The press release noted that the game is still in "early development," and doesn't currently have a release date, but is apparently expected to launch during Take Two's Fiscal year 2024. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Spider-Man PC files reveal that co-op and PvP were once being developed
    One curious player has dived into the PC files for Spider-Man Remastered, and sure enough, they found something interesting. The interesting bit being that Spider-Man very well could've featured co-op and PvP elements in an alternate universe. Twitter user, DniweTamp, shared screenshots of what they'd found in the game files, and they reveal that co-op and PvP were once in development for the superhero title. The screenshots have also since been checked and verified by VGC. The information comes directly from the games executable files and shows that multiplayer mode would've included callouts to 'the Superior Spider Man' alongside a winner message. It also appears the two characters would've stepped into the shoes of either Miles Morales or Peter Parker for the rumble. Read more  ( 16 min )
    God of War's story recap reminds you why everyone’s so excited about this year’s biggest PlayStation game
    If it's been a while since you've played 2018's God of War, you're in luck, as PlayStation has created a very convenient recap video. With the amount of games there are to get through practically on a daily basis, it would be pretty understandable if the story of the practically ancient (four years counts as ancient) God of War didn't manage to stick around in your head for too long. Thankfully, over on the PlayStation blog we've been gifted with a recap, paired with a Myths of Midgard video narrated by actress Felicia Day. The blog post is pretty much your standard recap affair. It reminds you who Krato is, if you managed to forget, and his son, Atreus, also known as capital B Boy. To go along with the important plot beats, you've got some screenshots that help visualise everything, but the better way to refamiliarise yourself with the story is the video. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Gremlins' Stripe and Black Adam are probably coming to MultiVersus
    A new MultiVersus leak appears to have revealed that someone fed a Mogwai after midnight (also Black Adam is there). After a short delay, MultiVersus Season One launches later today, and soon enough the game will see the arrival of Morty of Rick and Morty fame. But it also seems that some more characters that haven't had an official reveal yet were accidentally shown off early, as reported by Eurogamer. Game director Tony Huynh shared yesterday (August 14) that players could expect to see some unannounced characters in the login screen today (August 15), presumably once Season One launched, but an ad on the Xbox store has gone live a little bit early. Read more  ( 15 min )
  • Open

    The Pokémon Company International pledges global donations to organisations supporting children
    The Pokémon Company International has announced its commitment to global organisations in support of children and minority groups. A subsidiary of The Pokémon Company, The Pokémon Company International is responsible for the Pokémon brand in all regions other than Asia. As the Pokémon series has hit 25 years since its first game was released (Pokémon Red and Blue in 1996), the company has pledged to donate at least $25 million over five years to organisations across the world dedicated to "improving the lives of children and supporting social equity". Read more  ( 15 min )
    FIFA 23 transforms footballers into Marvel superheroes for Ultimate Team
    Here's an odd crossover: FIFA and Marvel. EA has announced a collaboration with Marvel that reimagines some of the most famous footballers of yesteryear as superheroes. Ex-footballers such as USA stalwart Landon Donovan, legendary Chelsea defender Ricardo Carvalho and all-conquering Man City midfielder Yaya Touré have unique illustrated designs that replace real-world player photos in FIFA 23's Ultimate Team mode. Read more  ( 15 min )
    DF Direct Weekly talks Spider-Man PC reviewing and PC gaming in an energy crisis
    Welcome the latest edition of DF Direct Weekly - Digital Foundry's regular show on the latest gaming and technology news. Perhaps not surprisingly, the lion's share of our news discussion this week concerns the release of Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered on PC. We've discussed the various trials we had in delivering our coverage - not least the arrival of a major (and welcome!) patch on embargo day. However, in this week's show, we talk about our discussions with Nixxes, remaining performance hurdles and the title's remarkable CPU burden, especially with ray tracing enabled. However, we also spend a fair amount of time talking about the rising cost of gaming - or more specifically, the huge increases in energy costs. In the UK at least, we're looking at a potentially gigantic and disastrous increase in the cost of electricity in October - and the recent news on next-gen GPUs raising their TDPs has got a lot of people concerned. First of all, I do think that the biggest TDP increases will be found on the more expensive GPUs, but ultimately, perhaps we should be looking at the energy savings brought about by frame-rate limiters. As we discuss in this week's show, you never really fully utilise a CPU - you buy a more expensive processor to mitigate against the worst case scenarios... so why not adopt the same strategy with a GPU too? I'm perfectly happy to play most triple-A fare at 90-100fps, effectively a 10-11ms render time per frame. Beyond that, my perception barely sees much difference - but the energy cost in running a GPU unlocked is significantly higher. So setting an arbitrary frame-rate cap that sits at the sweet spot of the game you're playing seems like a good idea to me, the idea being that your extra GPU performance is only deployed where needed in the service of a consistent experience. It'll be interesting to see if Nvidia, AMD or Intel consider some kind of energy efficiency mode - but of course, using DLSS or FSR 2.0 is also a big energy saver too. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Squirrel with a Gun promises a squirrel with a gun
    If there's anything that games have taught us over the past decade, it's that people want to play as animals. More specifically, we want to play as annoying little critters and get away with all sorts of things that real human life does not look kindly upon. Thankfully, indie developers have been paying attention to the success seen by previous games like Goat Simulator and Untitled Goose Game. Assignment understood. And I say that with confidence, and I'm about to show you why. Read more  ( 17 min )
    New God of War Ragnarök trailer will get you up to speed on the story so far
    PlayStation has unveiled a new trailer ahead of God of War Ragnarök's release. This trailer, titled Myths of Midgard, offers a brief summary of 2018's God of War epic. It stars Felicia Day, as she narrates the story of Kratos and Atreus so far. There are also little 'cameos' from know-it-all Mimir throughout the retelling, which is full of some really gorgeous artwork. You can check it out for yourself below. Read more  ( 15 min )
    New Lord of the Rings game on the way from Private Division and Weta
    A new Lord of the Rings game will be published by Private Division in collaboration with Weta Workshop. Details on the game itself are unknown, though it will be set in the Middle-earth universe of J.R.R. Tolkien's novels. Private Division is part of Take-Two Interactive and has previously published the likes of Kerbal Space Program, Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, and Obsidian's The Outer Worlds. It's also set to publish new games from Ori and the Blind Forest's Moon Studios, OlliOlli creators Roll7, and Armello developer League of Geeks. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Dedicated Zelda: Breath of the Wild player shares impressive Yiga Clan discovery
    One extremely dedicated Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild player has gone the extra mile, and unearthed a little known exploit of the game's Yiga Clan. So, it turns out that those 'travellers' that litter Hyrule, but are in fact members of the Yiga Clan in disguise, are actually "evil twins" of other inhabitants found across the map. As documented by justlookingfordragon on Reddit, the 'disguises' used by the Yiga are "1:1 clones of other, properly named NPCs that exist somewhere" in the game's world. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Affogato makes the case for more witches owning coffee shops
    I learned about Affogato in a PR email I didn't read properly, and I thought it was about running a coffee shop. It is, sort of. You run a coffee shop, handle the grinds and the brewing and the little shakers of sugar. But you're also a witch. And you can dive inside the minds of your customers and solve problems by fighting cleverly framed battles. So you run a coffee shop and then some. The coffee shop stuff inevitably reminds me of Coffee Talk, and Affogato has captured the same evening setting, sparkling with all its urban promise. It's fun trying to make drinks properly, remembering the differences between them and mastering the intricacies of seasoning. But the game properly comes alive in the battles. Affogato calls this system a sort of reverse tower-defense, and it calls to mind another reverse tower-defense game that I haven't thought about in years: Anomaly: Warzone Earth. In Anomaly, you lead a convoy through a city laced with turrets and enemy rockets. Affogato zooms in a little: you play cards to place units upon a track that threads through a bunch of baddies. They attack you automatically and you attack them automatically. Early on - I've only played the demo - it's all about picking the route and defending yourself. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Iconic Wii Sports Mii Matt joins Switch Sports
    Matt, one of the most famous faces from Nintendo Wii Sports era, is now available in Switch Sports for those that are looking to up their game. "Interested in a tougher challenge in #NintendoSwitchSports," asked Nintendo. "Try entering ZR + R + A or ZL + L + → on the difficulty select screen." This text in itself wasn't enough to set the internet ablaze. However, the picture accompanying the news was. Why? Because it showed Matt with his new 'legend' title brandishing a baton ready to take on players (thanks, IGN). Read more  ( 15 min )
    FaZe Clan's Nickmercs promotes maskless event in wake of TwitchCon San Diego's mask mandate
    Last week Twitch updated its policy for its TwichCon San Diego event, making masks a requirement while indoors as well as proof of vaccination or a negative covid test. Many potential attendees were put off by the lack of safety measures, but following the policy update others are now refusing to attend due to the mask requirement. FaZe Clan is organising its own event in San Diego at the same time, and its co-owner Nickmercs has stated masks won't be required. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Spider-Man Remastered mods let you play as Miles Morales, Stan Lee and more
    Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered released three days ago on PC, and modders have been hard at work over the weekend. There are already several mods which reshade the game, like this one from BadRusMan that emulates a more cinematic style, or overhaul the visuals, like this noir mod by ManWithAPlan. There's also a mod which disables the HUD and enemy outlines, by Mixerced, if you want to remove the interface whilst you play. Read more  ( 15 min )
    God of War Ragnarök leak reveals Odin concept art
    Ahead of its November release, a new image showing off concept art for Odin from God of War Ragnarök made its way online over the weekend. This leak came from industry insider AestheticGamer, also known as Dusk Golem. "I'm just holding onto a bunch of misc God of War Ragnarok things right now, decided to only post concept art of Odin. All I'm going to post, and yes, Odin looks a lot different than I imagined too," they wrote before sharing the image and wishing everyone a good day. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Cyberpunk 2077 mod replicates Johnny Silverhand's TTRPG look
    A new mod for Cyberpunk 2077 allows players to change the design of Johnny Silverhand to match his appearance in the original TTRPG. Project 2020 from modder ErebusEquity, available on Nexus Mods, includes tabletop appearances, original looks, and multiple face swap and hair swap options, as spotted by TheGamer. Cyberpunk 2077 is based on the Cyberpunk 2020 TTRPG from 1988, but has Silverhand played by Keanu Reeves in a central role to the plot. Read more  ( 15 min )
    MultiVersus leak reveals Gremlin antagonist Stripe is coming to brawl
    A new leak for Warner Bros.' brawler MultiVersus has revealed that both Stripe from Gremlins and DC's Black Adam will be joining the battle roster. As revealed by _FireMonkey on Twitter, the twosome can be seen in the game's season one startup screen, which Warner Bros. set live a little too early. The company had originally said that upcoming fighters would be teased in MultiVersus' start up screen, but unfortunately the developer jumped the gun a bit on that one. The duo will join the likes of current characters such as Bugs Bunny, Batman and Arya Stark. Meanwhile, Morty of Rick and Morty fame will be joining the fray on 23rd August. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Spider-Man Remastered second biggest launch for PlayStation Studios on PC
    Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered is off to a great start on PC, but Cult of the Lamb isn't far behind. Insomniac's PlayStation exclusive released last week on PC and it already has the second highest concurrent peak on Steam for PlayStation Studios, behind God of War. Its all-time peak is 66,436 players, behind God of War's 73,529, making it the second biggest launch for the studio on PC. It's currently the number one top selling game on Steam. Read more  ( 15 min )
  • Open

    Intel överger DirectX 9 – ska använda emulering
    Med händerna fulla med problem väljer Intel att inte längre stödja det äldre DirectX 9. Istället ska funktionaliteten bibehållas med hjälp av emulering.  ( 6 min )
    Microsoft: "Playstation 4 sålde dubbelt så bra som Xbox One"
    Efter att inte pratat om säljsiffror på flera år bekräftar Microsoft att Xbox One såldes i hälften så många exemplar som Playstation 4.  ( 6 min )
    Samsung 990 Pro med PCI Express 5.0 dyker upp i databas
    Till hösten väntas det koreanska bolaget släppa lös nästa generations SSD-enheter för konsumenter, där paradnumret är högre överföringshastigheter tack vare PCI Express 5.0.  ( 5 min )
    LG Display vill krympa OLED-monitor till 20 tum
    LG Display vill göra OLED-paneler tillgängliga i ännu fler storlekar och planerar att visa upp en OLED på 20 tum innan årets slut.  ( 6 min )
    Sommarens datorbygge har korats!
    SweClockers har talat! Sommarens tjusigaste bygge har röstats fram och det blev Vertikal av UnknownBum som kammade hem segern.  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Handling “apt-key is deprecated. Manage keyring files in trusted.gpg.d instead” in Ubuntu Linux
    The apt-key is being deprecated and your system knows that. But do you know what you should be doing for getting packages from external repositories?  ( 27 min )
  • Open

    Stuff
    stuff comic See also: Squires.nz | Instagram | Twitter The post Stuff appeared first on Moonbeard.  ( 1 min )
  • Open

    Comic for 2022.08.15 - My Wife
    New Cyanide and Happiness Comic  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Unreliable Connection
    No content preview  ( 1 min )

  • Open

    Nyhetsquiz vecka 32 2022: Teknikhösten närmar sig
    Intel Arc "Alchemist", kvartalsrapporter och färska produkter trängs i nyhetsflödet. Hur mycket har du snappat upp under den här varma augustiveckan?  ( 5 min )
    AMD Ryzen 7000 syns i webbutik
    Det återstår en månad innan Ryzen 7000 enligt uppgift finns på hyllorna, men en kanadensisk återförsäljare listar redan nu en framtida processorkvartett.  ( 5 min )
    Söndagsmatiné: Nödig moddare bygger skithäftig dator
    I veckans video visas hur en dator kan byggas in i toalettstolen – perfekt för skräckspel eller extra långa sittningar.  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Intel Drops DirectX 9 Support On Xe, Arc GPUs, Switches to DirectX 12 Emulation
    Intel has made the decision to remove native DirectX 9 support from its latest Xe iGPs and Arc GPUs, and replace DX9 with DX12 emulation instead.  ( 60 min )
    MSI’s AMD X670E and X670-P Motherboards Listed With Euro Pricing
    MSI’s MPG X670E Carbon Wi-Fi is about €620, and the MSI Pro X670-P Wi-Fi about €410 on average. Converting to USD and taking off VAT would give pricing of $495 and $320, respectively.  ( 62 min )
    Ryzen 7000 Retailer Pricing Shows Big Hike Over Ryzen 5000
    Preliminary Ryzen 7000 prices are here and are roughly 10 to 12% higher than Ryzen 5000 was at MSRP.  ( 59 min )
    Raspberry Pi Drives Tiny CNC Drawing Machine
    Maker and developer Pheux9558 is using a Raspberry Pi to power a custom CNC drawing machine with the help of an Arduino and recycled PC components.  ( 62 min )
    How To Make A Raspberry Pi Pico W Web Server
    The Raspberry Pi Pico W is mostly found powering maker projects, but in this how-to we use it to build an extremely low power web server.  ( 64 min )
  • Open

    PS4 sold "twice as many" units as Xbox One, new court papers show
    New court documents have confirmed that Sony's PS4 console sold "twice as many" units as Microsoft's Xbox One during last-gen's "console wars". Confirmation comes via Brazilian court papers wherein Microsoft is defending its acquisition of Activision Blizzard in front of the Brazilian competition authority, CADE. As spotted by GameLuster and translated via Google Translate - so bear with me; this may not be a 100 per cent word-for-word translation - page 17/18 (paragraph 46) of Microsoft's own published court papers state that "Sony has surpassed Microsoft in terms of console sales and installed [sic] base, having sold more than twice as many Xbox [One units] in the last generation". Read more  ( 16 min )
    If you've been offered a Lil Gator beta code, it's probably fake
    Playtonic and developer MegaWobble have reached out to fans of its upcoming Lil Gator Game to warn them that any emails purporting to be offering beta testing are a "scam". "It has come to our attention that someone is offering beta testing for Lil Gator Game," publisher Playtonic tweeted over the weekend. "We can confirm this is a SCAM and not from Playtonic or Lil Gator Game. "If we were offering this to our communities we would announce it on our Twitter and not via any other channels," the tweet added. Read more  ( 15 min )
    This Better Call Saul Gameboy fan game is the best thing we'll never play
    Three fans have taken Better Call Saul and Gameboy'd it. A three-minute teaser - which includes light spoilers for S1E9, S5E8, and S6E5, so be warned - lovingly recreates Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould's Breaking Bad spin-off as a monochrome Gameboy game, complete with plenty of fan service touches, including one of the scariest things I've ever seen: a happy Mike. The demake includes character options - which ranks your three playable characters Jimmy, Kim, and Mike by their Guts, Hustle, Authority, and Lawyer traits as well as unique passive skills - cut-scenes, and even a fab chip-tune version of the theme track. The slightly spoilerific gameplay we see plays on some of the scenarios Jimmy's found himself in over the years and I really, really want to play it. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Apple Silicon Face-Off: M1 Ultra and M1 Max take on high-end PC juggernauts
    It's high time Digital Foundry took a look at Apple Silicon and today we're going to be looking at the higher-end chips in the line-up. Our focus is on the monster that is the M1 Ultra, found within the latest Apple Mac Studio, but we're also going to be checking out the MacBook Pro's M1 Max. It's the M1 Ultra that truly commands our attention though: this system-on-chip represents the highest end computer processor Apple has designed to date, with the firm claiming it should be as fast as a high-end Windows desktop. Packing 20 CPU cores, a 21 teraflop GPU, and 800GB/s of memory bandwidth, it certainly seems like it could be - but how does it measure up in real-world testing and how well does it game? The M1 and M2 lines are the culmination of a long journey that has seen the firm transition away from SoCs based on third party design and IP, moving all chip design in-house to the furthest extent realistically possible. Apple designs its own GPUs, its own CPUs, and handles SoC design and integration. This results in tremendous control over processor design - the kind of control you would need to scale a phone processor up for high-end desktops. Which brings us to the M1 Ultra. Since 2020, Apple has been moving its Mac desktops and notebooks away from Intel CPUs and AMD GPUs and over to its in-house SOCs, taking the same fundamental tech from iPhones and integrating it into computers. Apple started with lower-end and lower-power form factors, but finally came around to high-end desktops with the release of the Ultra a few months ago. The M1 Ultra isn't really its own unique chip, however. It's actually two M1 Max SoCs connected over a high-bandwidth 2.5TB/s interposer. To the operating system and the user it seems like one monolithic chip with 1 CPU and GPU, but in reality this is two chips linked through a first-of-its-kind interconnect with the performance to support a dual-chip GPU and CPU. Read more  ( 24 min )
    Another unannounced Avatar game has popped up online
    It looks like another Avatar game - this one called Avatar The Last Airbender: Quest for Balance - is on the way. This is a different Avatar game from Ubisoft's recently delayed Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and also different from Avatar: Generations, which was announced earlier this week and is, confusingly, also seemingly based on the popular Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. As spotted by VGC, the unannounced PS4 game has popped up on Amazon Japan with a mid-November release date, but interestingly, it's listed as an import from North America, suggesting it's a Western release. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Here's Genshin Impact's 3.0 update release date
    A new livestream has revealed more about Genshin Impact's upcoming 3.0 update, The Morn a Thousand Rose Brings. Along with a lengthy new teaser video - which you can see below - we learned that 3.0, entitled The Morn a Thousand Rose Brings, is all set to release on 24th August, 2022. As Jessica recently summarised for us, 3.0 brings the Sumeru region to the game, the Dendro element, continues the main storyline, and will introduce lots of new characters. We now know these include four-star Electro Dori, along with upcoming additions five-star Dendro Tighnari and Collei, the latter of which - who is a four-star Dendro specialist - can be added for free via the Graven Innocence event. Zhongli is making a return, along with Ganyu and Kokomi, all of whom are five-star. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Ghost of Tsushima movie will be "a complete Japanese cast, in Japanese"
    Director Chad Stahelski has confirmed that his movie adaptation of Ghost of Tsushima will be "a complete Japanese cast, in Japanese". Speaking to Collider, Stahelski said that while it may "scare the shit out of most people", Sony is "on board with backing [him] on that" and "Western audiences in general are getting more and more used to [reading subtitles]". "Honestly, it's probably the same things that would scare the shit out of most people. It's a fantasy period piece," he said. "It's done with reverence to Akira Kurosawa, who's probably in the top five biggest influences of my life as far as film goes. It's a chance to push technology and people in a story that's timeless. It's your typical mythological story of good versus evil, finding a man, watching him change the world or the world changes him. It's all the Joseph Campbell stuff that you'd love in a story. You put that in with, obviously, so I'm told I have a bit of a Samurai fetish, which is probably true from Manga and anime and stuff. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Nintendo has no plans for a Nintendo Switch price hike "at this point"
    Despite widespread issues regarding part shortages, Nintendo has recently confirmed that it has plans to increase the price of the Nintendo Switch. Earlier this month, Nintendo did report that Switch sales had fallen by 23% due to the semiconductor components shortage, but company president Shuntaro Furukawa has confirmed to Nikkei that the company wants to "avoid pricing people out," (thanks NME). "We're not considering [a price increase] at this point, for two reasons," said Furukawa. "Nintendo has sold more than 100 million Switch units so far, and it's important to maintain the momentum of our overall business. Generally speaking, a weak yen makes domestic Switch sales less profitable." Read more  ( 15 min )
    Gotham Knights trailer shows off Red Hood and his definitely non-lethal fighting style
    Gotham Knights has steadily been showing us different members of the Bat family, with the latest trailer giving us a look at the rowdy Red Hood. Batman's whole deal, typically anyway, is that he doesn't kill anybody. That obviously has something to do with his own parents being killed, which he didn't exactly respond to in the most healthy way, but you still, it's a pretty hard rule. That rule doesn't apply so much to Red Hood, aka Jason Todd, a former Robin, as you can see in the most recent trailer and the frequency with which he shoots people. OK so technically if you look at his character page on the official website, he has supposedly "embraced Batman's non-lethal combat methods," but his character trailer sure does show him using a whole lot of violent combat methods, and he still does dual wield a couple of pistols. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Taking down PT from PSN store was "an awkard conversation" says the person who had to do it
    Eight years after the Silent Hills demo first released, the person responsible for taking PT down from the PSN store discusses what happened. We all dearly wish we could have seen Hideo Kojima's take on Silent Hill (and obviously so does he), but unfortunately we likely never will, outside of any footage of PT that's currently online. PT was an incredibly promising demo, and now due to its cancellation isn't even downloadable for those that owned it at any point in time. And now the very person who had it taken down from the PSN has spoken about the situation. At the time of PT's release, Pearl L. was Konami's first-party lead, and took to Twitter to talk pretty openly about some behind the scenes events regarding PT, though has since made their account private. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Microsoft makes bold claim that Sony pays "blocking rights" to stop games appearing on Game Pass
    According to a recent report, Microsoft has claimed that Sony pays for "blocking rights" to prevent developers adding their games to Xbox Game Pass. As reported by The Verge, the fairly substantial accusation comes as part of some documents that have been filed with Brazil's national competition regulator, as well as being part of a review of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. "Microsoft’s ability to continue expanding Game Pass has been hampered by Sony’s desire to inhibit such growth," Microsoft itself claims in a filing to the Administrative Council for Economic Defence, or CADE (translations from The Verge). "Sony pays for 'blocking rights' to prevent developers from adding content to Game Pass and other competing subscription services." Read more  ( 15 min )
    Saints Row gameplay overview shows off all the factions out to get you
    Saints Row is out in less than two weeks, so Volition and Deep Silver have dropped a new gameplay overview trailer diving into what you can expect from the game. For a gameplay overview trailer, there isn't much in the way of actual in-game gameplay, but it did dive into the various factions you'll meet in the game. First up is Los Panteros, who's run by certified beefcake Sergio. They're all about smuggling, and "have no hesitations about getting up on your business," making them one to watch out for. Then there's the more tech oriented, club culture donned Idols, who don't have any particular leader, only a faceless group known as The Collective, but do have a penchant for masks that Daft Punk would potentially approve of. Read more  ( 16 min )
    SpongeBob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake gets a wonderfully colourful first gameplay trailer
    First announced last year, SpongeBob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake has received its first gameplay trailer as part of THQ Nordic's recent showcase. Described as a "spiritual sequel" to the remake Battle For Bikini Bottom: Rehydrated, The Cosmic Shake is once again a 3D platformer that looks to have a variety of themed worlds, as is typical of the genre. Stylistically it's looking incredibly good, with nice bright and vivid colours that really match the tone of the series. The showcase trailer showed off SpongeBob and a for some reason floating, tinier version of companion Patrick Star travelling around different worlds and different points in time. Both of them are appropriately themed with different costumes depending on the locale. And interestingly, the game seems to have borrowed a little bit from Breath of the Wild with a paraglider in the form of a pizza box. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Avatar: The Last Airbender is getting a mobile only open-world RPG
    Avatar: The Last Airbender is getting an official open world RPG titled Avatar: Generations, planned exclusively for mobile. Developed by Square Enix London Mobile in collaboration with Navigator Games, Avatar: Generations will be a free-to-play title based on the Nickelodeon series. The game is planned to soft launch in Canada, Denmark, South Africa, and Sweden to start, with more territories to come over the coming months. The game is only planned to release on mobile at this point in time, for both Android and iOS, though it seems that the game will not be playable on all iOS devices to start. Read more  ( 15 min )
    PUBG has raked in "80,000 new users per day" since going free-to-play
    It sounds like PUBG has done pretty well for itself since going free-to-play, apparently bringing in roughly 80,000 news users a day. More and more live service games are going free-to-play, with PUBG having done so in January of this year, and Fall Guys having done the same in June. A big part of that is likely to bring in more players, especially because all of the big, successful live service titles like Apex Legends and Destiny 2 are free-to-play. And according to developer Krafton's preliminary earnings report for the first half of 2022, PUBG going free to play has certainly helped. The report states that since going free-to-play in January, PUBG "has seen a steady inflow of more than 80,000 new users per day." To give you an idea of how many new players that is, PUBG went free-to-play 214 days ago, meaning over 17 million players have signed-up to play the game. Read more  ( 15 min )
  • Open

    Alla roller i Ghost of Tsushima-filmen kommer spelas av japanska skådisar
    ...och alla kommer prata japanska.  ( 7 min )
    Svenska Block'Em lanseras den 8:e september
    Blocka dina vänner på Steam.  ( 6 min )
    Kan ett nytt South Park-spel vara under utveckling hos THQ?
    Heta South Park-rykten hos THQ  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Dirk Eddelbuettel: RcppArmadillo used by 1001 CRAN Packages
    It is with a mix of pride and joy, but also some genuine astonishment and amazement, that we can share that the counter of reverse dependencies at CRAN for our RcppArmadillo package for R just crossed 1000 packages [1]: Conrad actually posted this a few weeks ago, by my count we were then still a few packages shy. In any event, having crossed this marker this summer, either then or now, and after more than a dozen years of working on the package is a really nice moment. Google Scholar counts nearly 500 citations for our CSDA paper (also this vignette), and that ratio of nearly a citation for every two packages used is certainly impressive. We have had the pleasure of working with so many other researchers and scientists using RcppArmadillo. Its combination of performance (C++, after all, …  ( 3 min )
    Jamie McClelland: Web caching is hard
    Web caching is hard. And also, maybe I’m not that good under pressure? In any event, I made the following mistakes while trying to debug a web site using our nginx cache that bit the dust under heavy load today: Action: I ran curl -I https://website.org/ and it hung. Wrong assumption: Something is wrong with nginx. Why else would it just hang? Reconsidered conclusion: The resource (the home page) is a MISS, so nginx has to retrieve it from the origin, but the origin is over-loaded and timing out, so my request is also timing out. Maybe something is wrong with the nginx caching configuration since the home page really should be a HIT… but that’s another problem. Action: I changed the configuration from our normal caching set of directives to our aggressive caching set of directives, reloade…  ( 2 min )
    Sergio Durigan Junior: Debuginfod is coming to Ubuntu
    These past couple of months I have been working to bring debuginfod to Ubuntu. I thought it would be a good idea to make this post and explain a little bit about what the service is and how I'm planning to deploy it. A quick recap: what's debuginfod? Here's a good summary of what debuginfod is: debuginfod is a new-ish project whose purpose is to serve ELF/DWARF/source-code information over HTTP. It is developed under the elfutils umbrella. You can find more information about it here: https://sourceware.org/elfutils/Debuginfod.html In a nutshell, by using a debuginfod service you will not need to install debuginfo (a.k.a. dbgsym) files anymore; the symbols will be served to GDB (or any other debuginfo consumer that supports debuginfod) over the network. Ultimately, this makes the de…  ( 2 min )
    Russ Allbery: Review: Still Not Safe
    Review: Still Not Safe, by Robert L. Wears & Kathleen M. Sutcliffe Publisher: Oxford University Press Copyright: November 2019 ISBN: 0-19-027128-0 Format: Kindle Pages: 232 Still Not Safe is an examination of the recent politics and history of patient safety in medicine. Its conclusions are summarized by the opening paragraph of the preface: Robert Wears was Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Florida specializing in patient safety. Kathleen Sutcliffe is Professor of Medicine and Business at Johns Hopkins. This book is based on research funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, for which both Wears and Sutcliffe were primary investigators. (Wears died in 2017, but the acknowledgments imply that at least ea…  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Comic for 2022.08.14 - Now
    New Cyanide and Happiness Comic  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    AI could save future firefighters from deadly flashover explosions
    NIST-led engineers are working on building a real-time alert system AI could help save firefighters' lives by predicting fire flashovers before they occur, according to new research published this week. …  ( 5 min )
    Your AI-generated digital artwork may not be protected by US copyright
    Do we want to recognise machines as authors? The creative nature of neural networks is leading some to consider whether it might be worth changing current US laws that only grant copyright protection for works created by humans.…  ( 6 min )
    Meta's AI internet chatbot demo quickly starts spewing fake news and racist remarks
    Plus: How Google is using language models to improve search, and watch Heinz's AI ketchup advert In-brief  Another day, another rogue AI chatbot on the internet.…  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Intel Xeon Platinum 8380 Performance Is Looking Great For Linux 6.0
    Not only is the AMD EPYC performance looking real good for Linux 6.0, but many of the scheduler changes and common kernel improvements also carry over well for Intel's Xeon Platinum 8380 "Ice Lake" server processors too. For your viewing pleasure this weekend are some initial benchmarks looking at Linux 5.19 stable compared to Linux 6.0 Git as we approach the end of the merge window...  ( 5 min )
    Ubuntu Linux Preparing systemd-hwe To Ease OEM Hardware Enablement
    Being prepared for Ubuntu 22.10 and presumably will be back-ported in future Ubuntu 22.04 LTS point releases is the systemd-hwe package to more easily deal with updated hardware rules as part of new device enablement...  ( 5 min )
    Wine-Staging 7.15 Released - Currently At 536 Patches Atop Upstream Wine
    Following yesterday's belated release of Wine 7.15, Wine-Staging 7.15 is now available that continues to carry hundreds of extra testing/experimental patches atop upstream Wine for bug fixes and other features to empower Windows games and applications on Linux...  ( 5 min )
    Glibc 2.36 Dropping DT_HASH Has Been Breaking Easy Anti Cheat Games With Steam Play
    Those on rolling-release Linux distributions that are quick to adapt to new toolchain updates are finding Easy Anti Cheat (EAC) enabled games breaking when running on the recently released Glibc 2.36. The breakage stems from the DT_HASH section being dropped in GNU C Library but EAC being among the few software still expecting that section rather than DT_GNU_HASH...  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    The Sunday Papers
    Sundays are for using a gyroscope to rehabilitate your ailing wrist. Before you rotate, let's read this week's best writing about games (and game related things). Read more  ( 17 min )
    Final Fantasy 14's Island Sanctuary update will arrive on August 23rd
    As a non-player, the trailer for Final Fantasy 14's Patch 6.2, Buried Memory, is indistinguishable from every other patch trailer. There's enormous boss monsters, several types of void, an incongruous cat creature, Death maybe... Where it differs is that there are also a few glimpses of the Island Sanctuary, FFXIV's new solo farming content. Watch it below ahead of the newly announced release date: August 23rd. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Gothic 1 Remake's new trailer captures the atmosphere of the original
    Gothic was one of those PC games I dismissed as being for nerds. Me? I was too busy making Half-Life levels and reading Championship Manager fanfic to be interested in some game about mages in a hole. I've since realised the errors of my ways, and I quite fancy the chance to correct my previous wrongs via the Gothic 1 remake. There's a new trailer for it and its big modern hole below. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    How to Record Audio in Linux With Audacity (and Reduce Noise)
    Audacity is an incredibly useful tool for quick audio edits. Here's how you can install it on Linux and use it for audio recording and background noise removal.  ( 24 min )

  • Open

    Jagged Alliance 3's new trailer shows a few seconds of the only feature I care about
    THQ Nordic announced Jagged Alliance 3 during their September showcase last year. It's only fitting that it returned during this year's showcase, bringing a much more detailed trailer to show off how combat will work. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Outcast 2: A New Beginning gets a new trailer showing combat and jetpacks
    Outcast 2: A New Beginning was announced last September with a cinematic trailer. We got a glimpse of the game itself this week, including jetpacking, combat, and Cutter Slade's thick eyebrows. Read more  ( 16 min )
    What are we all playing this weekend?
    That rumbling you hear over the horizon is not exactly Gamescom looming nearer; it's the rumbling of the tummies of video games bloggers anticipating eating spiralised potatoes and hot dogs from a food van outside the venue. Less than two weeks to go! But before then, we will see QuakeCon next week. And before then, what are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on! Read more  ( 17 min )
  • Open

    Wine 7.15 Adds RSA Encryption, Direct2D Command Lists
    Wine 7.15 is out a day late as the newest development snapshot of this open-source software for enjoying Windows games and applications on Linux and other platforms. Wine is also what serves as the base for Valve's Proton that powers Steam Play...  ( 4 min )
    AMD Radeon 680M Graphics Benchmarks Across Various Linux Kernel, Mesa Versions
    With the Ryzen 6000 "Rembrandt" mobile processors most exciting about these Zen 3+ SoCs has been the energy efficiency improvements and moving from Vega to RDNA2 graphics as with the Radeon 680M found on the Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U that I have been running many Linux benchmarks on over the past several weeks. For those wondering if it pays off moving to a newer Linux kernel or Mesa version with Radeon 680M integrated graphics, here are some reference benchmarks I recently conducted...  ( 5 min )
    Linux Gets New Patch To Fix AMD Retbleed Mitigation - STIBP Needed With IBPB
    Sent out this morning is a Linux kernel "fix" that now enabled STIBP when using the IBPB mode for Retbleed mitigations on AMD processors. In other words, more protections needed for this enhanced mode of Retbleed mitigation...  ( 5 min )
    RISC-V Lands New Extensions In Linux 6.0
    Last week was the main set of RISC-V updates for Linux 6.0 that included improving Svpbmt support, a more robust default kernel configuration, and other improvements. A secondary set of RISC-V CPU architecture updates has now been merged for Linux 6.0...  ( 5 min )
    Plasma 5.26 Improving Widget Accessibility, Kickoff Gets Compact Mode + Wayland Fixes
    It's been another busy summer week for KDE developers with many new features and fixes landing within this open-source desktop stack...  ( 4 min )
    Many VirtIO Changes Land For Linux 6.0
    A number of changes were merged into Linux 6.0 for benefiting virtualization when making use of VirtIO...  ( 4 min )
  • Open

    Windows compatibility layer Wine version 7.15 out now
    Wine is a compatibility layer that aims to let you run games and applications designed for Windows on Linux and a new release version 7.15 is out now.  ( 4 min )
    Humble Bundle have another interesting set of games in the Tactical Combat Bundle
    Need more games to fill up your library? Humble Bundle have put up another one that looks pretty good with the Tactical Combat Bundle. So here's what to expect on Linux desktop and Steam Deck.  ( 4 min )
    Spider-Man Remastered is awesome on Steam Deck
    With Spider-Man Remastered now available on Steam after previously being PlayStation exclusive, I took it for a spin on Steam Deck and Linux desktop.  ( 4 min )
  • Open

    Outcast 2: A New Beginning trailer gives us a story background and a look at gameplay
    A new story and gameplay trailer for Outcast 2: A New Beginning was shown during THQ Nordic's digital showcase yesterday. The sequel is in development at Appeal Studios which developed the original title. Set 20 years after the original game, in it, you play as ex-Navy SEAL Cutter Slade who has returned to the alien world of Adelpha. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Final Fantasy 14 Online patch 6.2, Buried Memory, has a release date
    A release date has been set for Final Fantasy 14 Online patch 6.2, Buried Memory. Releasing August 23, provided during the latest Letter from the Producer Live broadcast presented by producer and director Naoki Yoshida, the news was accompanied by a new trailer and information on the latest chapter that includes fresh battle challenges and the Island Sanctuary. During the broadcast, Yoshida offered viewers a demonstration of Island Sanctuary, a new type of casual solo content that allows you to build and customize your own farm on a deserted island. You will do this by gathering materials, building facilities, caring for creatures, and more, without the need for prior crafting or gathering experience. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered PC - recommended Optimized Settings provided by Digital Foundry
    Digital Foundry has given Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered a go on PC, and to help you get the best experience, a chart featuring recommended Optimized Settings was provided. If you head over through the link, you will see the chart, as well as a breakdown of how each setting affects the game for good or ill. On PC, Marvel's Spider-Man features ray-traced reflections with varying quality levels, one of which is a new, higher-quality ray-traced mode that offers even more city detail. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Gothic Remake trailer takes you on a visit to the Old Mine
    THQ Nordic has released a new trailer for Gothic Remake that takes you into the Old Mine, a place that would be terrible for a picnic. In development with Alkimia Interactive, the team’s focus and ambition is to build high-quality remake of the RPG which is set to be released for PC and next-gen consoles. In December 2019, THQ Nordic released a playable Gothic remake prototype asking for public opinion on a possible modern remake of the classic RPG. The playable teaser appeared in the Steam Library of everyone who owned a game from Piranha Bytes. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Nightingale’s Early Access release moved into next year
    The upcoming Early Access period for Victorian-style fantasy game Nightingale has been delayed. The game's developer, Inflexion Games, stated the reason behind the delay was a switch to Unreal Engine 5. Because of the switch, the game will now go into Early Access sometime in 2023. “We’ve made the difficult decision to delay Nightingale’s Early Access release to the first half of 2023,” said Inflexion in the statement. “We’ll have more news on specific timing at a later stage.” Read more  ( 16 min )
    THQ Nordic teases in-development South Park game
    During its showcase yesterday, THQ Nordic closed the stream by teasing the next South Park game. Further details were not provided, but when the teaser was shown, you could hear Randy Marsh yelling "hot hot hot hot" in the background. I wonder how many courics it was this time? This isn't the first bit of news we've heard regarding a new South Park game in development. Read more  ( 15 min )
    What are you playing this weekend?
    Friday is done and dusted. Everyone has clocked out, ran out the door as fast as possible, and jumped into their cars or ran to catch the next train home. Hopefully, the traffic or the ride wasn't too bad on the commute home. Now that folks have arrived at their domicile, it's time to kick off the shoes, change into some sweats or yoga pants (even just skivvies - we don't judge!), grab some beer or wine, fire up the console or PC and gave a nice sit down to take their weekly frustrations out by playing a game or two. That's what we're doing anyway, and here's what we're playing: Read more  ( 16 min )
    Catch up with news from THQ Nordic's 2022 Digital Showcase and Publisher Sale
    Yes, it’s getting towards the middle of August, but that doesn’t mean the big summer of game announcements is over yet – last night (August 12) we saw THQ Nordic take to the airwaves to show off a selection of new games, including a brand new Alone in the Dark reboot. Founded in 2011, THQ Nordic is an Austrian video game publisher and developer that has been snapping up the rights to game properties and IP across the world, as well as funding its own studios to create new series. Developers like Black Forest Games, Bugbear Entertainment, Gunfire Games, HandyGames, Piranha Bytes, Purple Lamp Studios, Rainbow Studios and many more besides fit under the THQ Nordic umbrella, working on internationally renowned series like Wreckfest, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Destory All Humans! The publisher is known for not just sticking to one style, too – whether you’re into motorsport, action-adventure, RPGs, or whatever else, there’s likely something you’ll be interested in coming from THQ Nordic. The publisher said itself that it wanted to "land a massive punch" with this showcase – and with Wreckreation and Alone in the Dark, it seems that mission was accomplished. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Försäljningen av processorer för stationära når bottennivå
    Sötebrödsdagarna ser ut att vara över, men AMD trotsar trenden och kniper marknadsandelar.  ( 6 min )
    Helgsnack: Vad ser du fram emot under hårdvaruhösten 2022?
    När temperaturerna dalar och löven skiftar färg, växlar hårdvaruföretagen upp. Berätta vilka lanseringar och komponenter du ser fram emot!  ( 5 min )
    Uppdatering för Memtest86 ska visa vilken minneskrets som felar
    Med en ny uppdatering ska minnestestet kunna peka på precis var felet ligger, förutsatt att systemet i fråga använder Intels "Alder Lake" med DDR5-minne.  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Intel Inadvertently Narrows Down Arc A770, A750 GPU Pricing
    Intel has changed the prize pool in its GPU-focused scavenger hunt to include an alternative Core i5-12600K or Core i7-12700K prize for the original Arc A750 and A770 prizes.  ( 59 min )
    AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT Graphics Cards Dip Below $700
    From an MSRP of $999 to astronomical crypto-boom era prices nearing $2,000, multiple Radeon RX 6900 XT options are now available for $699.  ( 59 min )
    CPU Benchmarks and Hierarchy 2022: Processor Ranking Charts
    All of today's desktop CPU benchmarks compared, including Intel's 12th-Gen Core series and AMD's Ryzen Zen 3 and Threadripper.  ( 85 min )
    How To Remove Background Noise, Distortion in Audacity
    Using the free audio editor, Audacity, learn how to restore old recordings and improve audio clarity.  ( 63 min )
    Wuque Studio Ikki68 Aurora R2 Review: Transformer
    The Ikki68 Aurora R2 is an excellent, mid-tier custom keyboard kit. It’s on the pricier side, especially for its lack of battery, but for that money, you get exceptional customization to ensure you find the typing experience you’re looking for. It looks, sounds, and feels great to type on.  ( 70 min )
  • Open

    The person responsible for adding - and removing - PT from the PSN store speaks for the first time
    The person responsible for putting PT onto the Sony storefront - as well as having to take it back off again - has spoken about the situation for the first time. Pearl Lai, who was Konami's first-party lead at the time, took to Twitter to talk candidly - and diplomatically - about the time the free-to-play Silent Hills teaser was controversially pulled from the Sony store eight years ago yesterday (12th August). "Fun fact: since I was the first-party lead at the time at Konami, I helped get this product set up on the storefronts, fake publisher and everything," they tweeted (thanks, VGC). Read more  ( 16 min )
    Capcom producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi leaves after 27 years to join NetEase
    Producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi has parted ways with Capcom after 27 years. Whilst Kobayashi left Capcom on 1st March 2022, he chose 12th August - his 50th birthday - to make the announcement that he had left the famed Japanese company to take up another producer position at NetEase. "Today, 12th August, is my 50th birthday," Kobayashi's statement begins. "As such, I would like to share something very special with everyone: After serving 27 years with gratitude, I have departed from Capcom on 1st March and will be officially joining NetEase as a producer. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Nintendo won't increase the price of Nintendo Switch "at this point"
    Nintendo has confirmed that it has no plans to increase the price of its Nintendo Switch console. Despite a drop in sales of around 23 per cent year-on-year - chiefly due to the tech industry's ongoing shortage of semiconductor parts stifling manufacturing - Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa told Nikkei that Nintendo wanted to "avoid pricing people out". "We're not considering [a price increase] at this point, for two reasons," Furukawa said (thanks, NME). "In order to offer unique entertainment to a wide range of customers, we want to avoid pricing people out. Our competition is the variety of entertainment in the world, and we always think about pricing in terms of the value of the fun we offer. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Phasmophobia players want smaller maps
    It looks like a lot of Phasmophobia players hope to see smaller maps in upcoming updates. In a poll in the game's subreddit community and spotted by PCGN, players were invited to vote on the next map they would like to see join the Phasmophobia rotation. Options include a circus/carnival, mall/movie theatre, manufacturing plant, office park/corporate building, and a small town square. Whilst thousands of players have voted on their preference, some took to the comments to talk about the size those hypothetical maps could be, and posited that smaller maps were important, too. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Diablo Immortal players are reporting a new bug that is "reducing XP for everyone"
    Diablo Immortal players are reporting a new bug that is "reducing XP for everyone". A thread on the game's subreddit community - complete with examples and screenshots - is claiming that "there’s a bug that reduces the XP earned on a significant portion of kills and XP globes". "We don’t fully understand why or when it will happen," explains u/staplepies (thanks, NME), who's one of five players "looking at this on and off for the last month or so". Read more  ( 16 min )
    Tiny Tina's Wonderlands' Shattering Spectreglass DLC "expands the endgame experience"
    Tiny Tina's Wonderlands' fourth DLC chapter, Shattering Spectreglass, is out now, "expanding the endgame experience" with a new class, better character creation options, a new boss, and "incredible loot". Available for no extra cost for those who already own the season pass - and to buy separately for those who don't - Shattering Spectreglass ushers in the all-new Blightcaller class which "allows players to harness the noxious essence of swamps with potent precision, alongside new ways to customise your Fatemaker, including an all-new voice". "Shattering Spectreglass begins in Dreamveil Overlook, where players will face Vesper’s most personal Mirror of Mystery yet," 2K explains. "Shattering Spectreglass offers a window into Vesper's memories, which are plagued by visions of Redmourne the Trivern, a mighty beast that can grow multiple heads and feeds on fear, siphoning his power from lost souls. Bringing down this winged behemoth once and for all is the only way to help Vesper escape her past." Read more  ( 16 min )
    There's a new South Park game on the way
    THQ Nordic rounded out its 2022 Showcase by teasing a new South Park game. "As of today, THQ Nordic (HandyGames not included) has 43 games in development. Thereof 26 still unannounced AFTER this showcase," the broadcast confirmed at the end of the presentation. "Thank you for watching." Moments later, though, the 26 is crossed out, and the text fades to the South Park Digital Studios logo - head to 55min and 11secs on the video below to see for yourself: Read more  ( 15 min )
    NBA 2K23 reveals more about its upcoming mode The Jordan Challenge
    NBA 2K23 is inviting you to "experience Michael Jordan's most iconic moments" in its upcoming Jordan Challenge mode. The game mode will include 15 "playable moments from Jordan's career that let players relive his legacy from the early days as a college sensation, to his game-winning shot in the 1998 NBA Finals". Each challenge will include a pre-game interview with a "luminary who was part of what made every game special" and a new presentation package that recreates how the games would've looked as they were originally broadcast in the 80s and 90s. Read more  ( 16 min )
    PUBG: Battlegrounds boasts 80,000 more daily players since going free-to-play
    PUBG: Battlegrounds has clocked up 80,000 new players daily since going free-to-play earlier this year. Confirming the new figures in its latest financial report, developer/publisher Krafton confirmed that net profit for the company was up 37 per cent when compared with the same quarter last year, even though both operating profit and revenue were down by 6.9 per cent and 7.8 per cent respectively. 94 per cent of the battle royale's revenue is generated outside of South Korea, where the game is made. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    The weekend’s best deals: Apple MacBook Air, Resident Evil bundle, and more
    Dealmaster also has the Xbox Series S, Apple Watch Series 7, and Nvidia Shield TV.  ( 9 min )
    A little taste of everything that’s out there
    The book The Short Story of the Universe really does have it all.  ( 5 min )
    How long will it take to understand long COVID?
    Researchers have proposed a variety of theories to explain symptoms of COVID long-haulers.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Paula Manrique smyglanserar gaming-inspirerade klädkollektion på Space i Stockholm
    Gamerkläder för tjejer på Space  ( 6 min )
    FZ Play - Vi startar sekt i Cult of the Lamb
    I afton sekt.  ( 6 min )
    Alone in the Dark återskapas av manusskrivaren bakom Soma
    Vågar du vara ensam i mörkret?  ( 6 min )
    Hogwarts Legacy släpps den 10:e februari nästa år
    Polera trollstavarna och ta fram kvastarna.  ( 6 min )
    Hogwarts Legacy släpps den 10:e februari i år
    Polera trollstavarna och ta fram kvastarna.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    AI laser probe for prostate cancer enters clinical trials
    FDA says yes to the tests AI software capable of mapping tumor tissue more accurately to help surgeons treat and shrink prostate cancer using a laser-powered needle will soon be tested in real patients during clinical trials.…  ( 5 min )
    Ukraine's cyber chief comes to Black Hat in surprise visit
    Tl;DR - the news isn't good Black Hat In Brief  Victor Zhora, Ukraine's lead cybersecurity official, made an unannounced visit to Black Hat in Las Vegas this week, where he spoke to attendees about the state of cyberwarfare in the country's conflict with Russia. The picture Zhora painted was bleak.…  ( 8 min )
    Intel finally takes the hint on software optimization
    Don't have the budget or customer base for Graviton-class silicon? Intel thinks it can help In a quest to deliver better application performance and greater efficiency, many software and hardware vendors are turning to custom silicon to achieve their goals.…  ( 5 min )
    Let there be ambient light sensing, without fear of data theft
    Six years on web devs finally settle on sensor privacy defenses Six years after web security and privacy concerns surfaced about ambient light sensors in mobile phones and notebooks, browser boffins have finally implemented defenses.…  ( 5 min )
    Palo Alto bug used for DDoS attacks and there's no fix yet
    There goes the weekend... A high-severity Palo Alto Networks denial-of-service (DoS) vulnerability has been exploited by miscreants looking to launch DDoS attacks, and several of the affected products won't have a patch until next week.…  ( 5 min )
    Starlink satellite dish cracked on stage at Black Hat
    Once the modchip plans are live, you can, too Black Hat  A security researcher has shown how to, with physical access at least, fully take over a Starlink satellite terminal using a homemade modchip.…  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Comic for 2022.08.13 - Smooth
    New Cyanide and Happiness Comic  ( 5 min )

  • Open

    Here's everything shown during tonight's THQ Nordic showcase
    The all-consuming IP hoover that is THQ Nordic has done a showcase! Mixing a nostalgia-baiting slate of 90s revivals with some intriguing newcomers, it was a surprisingly busy one too. So if you missed it and find yourself eager for updates on previously announced titles like Outcast 2, Jagged Alliance 3, and Gothic, plus some big new reveals - most notably the return of Alone in the Dark - read on. Alone in the Dark As rumoured, the grandaddy of survival horror is back in what THQ Nordic and developer Pieces Interactive is calling a "reimagining" of the 1992 original. It's being written and directed by Mikael Hedberg, who wrote the stunning Soma at Frictional Games, and is coming to Xbox, PlayStation, and PC at a later date. We've got a little more on this promising project elsewhere. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Dangerous Driving dev's Wreckreation is an open-world racer with a DIY focus
    UK developer Three Fields Entertainment - the studio behind the likes of Dangerous Golf and Dangerous Driving - has unveiled Wreckreaction, a new custom-content-focused open-world racer coming to PC, PlayStation, and Xbox next year. Three Fields - a studio founded by a small group of ex-Criterion developers - describes Wreckreaction as a game of high-speed racing, crashing, stunts, and exploration, all of which unfolds across a 400-square-mile map. That map is designed to represent an entire (fictitious) American state split into four areas, albeit one predominantly themed around woodland, grassland, and sandy beaches. As to how players approach the challenges within Wreckreaction's world, the idea is that it's entirely up to them, with Three Fields saying it wants to encourage a more freeform style of fun as players explore the world in search of races, short cuts, and challenges. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Become a galactic property magnate in cute management game Space for Sale
    Mirage Game Studios - the developer behind well-received factory sim Little Big Workshop - has shared a first look at its adorable galactic property magnate game Space for Sale, which is due to launch on PC at a currently undisclosed date. Space for Sale casts players in the role of a cute astronaut that's just bought an entire galaxy on the cheap, with the aim of turning it into a dream destination for alien homeseekers across the cosmos. To reach that goal, players must scour the galaxy's procedural planets in search of the perfect spot to fulfil their clients' sometimes eccentric needs. Although Space for Sale's basic concept sounds very management sim, Mirage says the game's sandbox-style gameplay is more of a "hands-on experience" than that might suggest, with players needing to explore each planet in person as they hunt down the ideal location to drop a plot, construct buildings, collect resources, scan items, and so on. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Survival horror classic Alone in the Dark is being 'reimagined' by Soma writer
    THQ Nordic is 'reimagining' survival horror classic Alone in the Dark, with Soma and Amnesia: The Dark Descent writer Mikael Hedberg at the helm. Alone in the Dark, for those too young to remember, is widely considered to be the granddaddy of the survival horror genre, with the 1992 original pioneering the fixed-camera spook-house formula that would go on to influence the likes of Resident Evil and Silent Hill. THQ Nordic's reimagined version of Alone in the Dark - which is being handled by Swedish developer Pieces Interactive - takes the basic premise of the 1992 original, in which private detective Edward Carnby helps Emily Hartwood investigate her uncle's suicide at the gloomy Derceto Mansion, and shakes it up a little for modern audiences. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Marvel's Spider-Man PC - a patch or two away from perfection
    Developer Nixxes patched Marvel's Spider-Man a couple of hours before embargo on Wednesday, setting back our PC tech review, but the update was worth it and while a little more polish is required to get the game fully into shape, the release you'll be playing today definitely hits the spot. We've already covered the PC version in broad brush strokes, but today we can get a little more granular and offer up our optimised settings for delivering the best balance between performance and fidelity. Let's quickly recap on what we've already discussed - and it's mostly great stuff. First of all, I like the graphics configuration menu that appears before you run the game - it's a Nixxes (and IO Interactive!) hallmark that gives you an instant 'at a glance' look at the options available and allows for friction-free settings changes outside of the game. Those settings include fully realised support for practically any aspect ratio, plus configurable field of view. Not only that, but the game's full-screen support includes actual exclusive full-screen, allowing for resolutions and refresh rates outside of the desktop options - a rare thing in PC gaming today. Also impressive is how the in-game options menu actually works. Pause the game at any time and any tweaks you make are instantly deployed, allowing you to see the changes you've made in real-time. In a world where some problematic PC titles don't do this and can even require you to restart the game, this is excellent. On paper, all of the things I've praised here should be standard and second nature to PC developers but unfortunately that's not the case. Where Nixxes excels is where ports like Elden Ring, Final Fantasy VII or Halo Infinite flounder, sometimes spectacularly so. Read more  ( 20 min )
    Final Fantasy 14's Buried Memory Patch 6.2 has a release date
    Patch 6.2 for Final Fantasy 14 - named Buried Memory - will release on 23rd August. The update will add a fresh batch of story missions, as well as a farming sim mode called Island Sanctuary. An epic new trailer for the patch includes plenty of gameplay (and Endwalker story spoilers) from across the update, and some cute dancing Loporrits - moon bunnies for the uninitiated. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Master Chief beats down thugs in Yakuza 0 mod
    Play as Master Chief in Yakuza 0 thanks to the power of modder Kashiiera. The mod, uploaded earlier this week, replaces usual protagonist Kiryu Kazuma with Halo's poster boy Master Chief. Specifically his incarnation in Halo 3. Kashiiera is primarily a Halo modder as it's their favourite franchise, but they also love Yakuza and so worked hard to project Master Chief's model correctly onto Kiryu's to keep him looking as natural as possible. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Blinnk and the Vacuum of Space is a VR adventure designed for autistic players
    An upcoming VR game from Changingday is specifically designed for autistic players, and will allow users to "play at their own pace" while "[supporting] them through everyday experiences". Blinnk and the Vacuum of Space starts off on the first day of your new job at Norp Corp. However, your new boss, a certain Mister Norp, is a hungry chap, with only one demand. You must bring him "the greatest sandwich in the galaxy". This may all sound easy enough, I mean how hard can bread and filling be? Well, it turns out it can be a lot harder than you may expect, especially when robot companion Blinnk is involved. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Capcom announces two livestreams for Tokyo Games Show 2022
    Capcom has announced it will have two livestream presentations as part of Tokyo Games Show this year. The first will be on 15th September (3pm UK time) and will include "all the latest Capcom news in our pre-recorded stream". The second will follow on 16th September and focus solely on Street Fighter 6. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Arcade Paradise review: wash clothes and play games in this feat of grime-caked memory
    Let me keep this brief, as I have a wash on - a wash full of briefs! Arcade Paradise is a game about running a laundrette - at first it is anyway. It's one of those jobs a lot of us start out in even if you don't, as is the case here, have a family in the laundrette biz. You run the laundrette, day by day, bussing in and out. You collect trash, you wash and fold clothes, you unclog the toilet and empty the coin hopper in the tokens machine. You put the laundrette's income in the safe and you chat to your friends on a messenger app accessed via the 56k set-up in the back office. But in another back room there are arcade games - cabinets with playable games! It's like opening a door and finding that aliens have landed. You can play these games - play clever spins on match-three, on Mr Driller, on plenty of others - but you can also earn money from them too. You can collect the money in their coin hoppers and whack that in the safe. And what if all this money you're collecting, what if you used it to expand? To buy new cabinets, to create more room to store them in? Onwards. So Arcade Paradise moves on, in step with the rolling Katamari of commerce and capitalism. More, brighter, shinier. But also quicker, more efficient. More free time in the day is opened up by the right upgrades, so that the time, along with the money, can be reinvested. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Destiny 2 getting weapon balance changes, as Lord of Wolves gets nerfed
    Bungie has detailed some of the changes that are coming to Destiny 2. In its weekly blog post, or TWAB, the company explained some of the weapon balance changes players can expect, which includes buffing some of the game's under-utilised weapon archetypes. For example, lightweight bows will get faster draw times as well as an increased "perfect draw" window to make things a bit easier for players. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Unity wins contract with IT company that support US government
    Unity, known for its popular game engine, revealed it has signed an "exciting three-year multi-million dollar contract" with CACI International in its latest financial results. CACI International, for context, is an IT company which provides technology to various US federal and state government agencies. Marc Whitten, senior vice president at Unity and general manager of Unity Create, explained Unity's role in the contract as "defining human machine interfaces or HMI for aerospace applications and beyond" in the company's follow-up earnings call, as reported by Bloomberg. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Arcade Paradise is something special, and so much more
    It's another Friday and another Weekly - the show that recaps and discusses the week on Eurogamer for you. And remember, premium supporters of Eurogamer get these episodes every Friday, whereas everyone else listens from Monday. Today on Weekly, news reporter Ed Nightingale talks about running a university of his own in Two-Point Campus, which he really liked. And we hear from Christian Donlan about a game I've been really looking forward to, Cult of the Lamb. Spoiler: it's good. But Christian is more excited about the game he's reviewing now - a game called Arcade Paradise. It's a game about running a laundrette but also an arcade within it, which, with time and careful management, will grow into the main attraction. Read more  ( 14 min )
    Cheat maker fires back at Bungie after Destiny 2 copyright infringement case
    Destiny 2 cheat maker AimJunkies has fired back at Bungie, issuing subpoenas to obtain information to back up that its work isn't copyright infringement. Earlier this year, Bungie alleged copyright infringement and breach of contract against AimJunkies for its Destiny 2 "hacks", but the court dismissed much of the case. Bungie was allowed more time to reinstate its case and a few weeks later alleged that AimJunkies had reverse-engineered and copied the software code for Destiny 2. Read more  ( 15 min )
    The video game mop-up: solution to all of life's problems
    Recently I have been in one of those periods where no video game will do, where I have chased a game - a something - across download libraries and subscription catalogues and a couple of cupboard drawers in vain, a quest across gaming's ribcage and shoulder blades for some roaming, ineffable itch that I cannot scratch. I suspect I'm not alone in this one, though, so if you ever find yourself in the same spot, may I suggest: the mop-up. The mop-up has many forms. For me, somewhat uncreatively, it's the task of completing a "living 'dex" in Pokémon - catching one of every Pokémon ever released and storing them all, in order, in one place, including all the many different forms and stages of each evolution. This makes it a bit more long-winded than completing a regular regional or national Pokédex, because you couldn't just catch, say, one Abra and then evolve it into Kadabra, then Alakazam, crossing off all three at once - you need one of each in your possession simultaneously. The challenge is really besides the point, though. A good mop-up, I reckon, will always have a few common elements. One is that it happens, by definition, at the end of a game you've broadly completed - think finishing sidequests, bumping off the last surviving enemies on a given list, wiping the final factions off a map, et cetera. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Shoothouse inspired map detailed in new video
    Infinity Ward, the team behind Modern Warfare 2, has given us all a little peek at a new map that is coming to the game. The map, which is called Farm 18, was inspired by Modern Warefare's Shoothouse map. "We tried to think of hidden training facilities, but it is also in an industrial cement factory," explained Geoff Smith, the director of multiplayer map design on Modern Warfare 2. Read more  ( 15 min )
    A mobile Avatar: The Last Airbender game is on the way
    A new Avatar game has been announced. No, not that one. This is Avatar: Generations, based on the popular Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. (Your release date got pushed back? That's rough, buddy.) The game is being developed by Square Enix London Mobile in partnership with Navigator Games, and is described as a "free-to-play, RPG adventure". At release, the game will follow the main gang (Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, Suki, Zuko, Appa and Momo) across the storyline of the series. New stories are promised too, as well as "fan-favourite locations, stories, and events in an open world". Subsequent updates will feature other minor characters from The Last Airbender such as Avatar Kyoshi, as well as characters and storylines from Avatar: The Legend of Korra. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Splatoon 2 players will receive bonuses for transferring save data to Splatoon 3
    Splatoon 2 players will be given bonuses when transferring save data to Splatoon 3. Nintendo's Splatoon 3 Direct earlier this week detailed what's new in the game, but a note on the official website states that save data can be transferred and players will receive in-game rewards for doing so. Apparently "five out of five Squid Research Lab scientists recommend transferring data from Splatoon 2 if you have it". So that's that. Read more  ( 15 min )
    MultiVersus Season One gets new release date
    Following its recent delay, a new release date for Warner Bros.' Smash-like brawler MultiVersus' first season has been announced. Welcomely, the new release date is actually really soon. In fact, it is as soon as 15th August. This also means that Morty will soon be joining the fray. His arrival to the game will be a little after season one's debut, with the new fighter now coming on 23rd August. Read more  ( 15 min )
    What we've been playing
    Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've found ourselves playing over the last few days. This time: donuts, imps, and stealth Destiny. If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive. Donut County is a game about controlling a sink hole. You move around encouraging parts of the landscape to fall into it, and over time the hole gets bigger so you can encourage bigger things to fall into it. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Dino park sim Parkasaurus goes aquatic today with new Sea Monsters DLC
    WashBear Studio's charming, thoroughly enjoyable dinosaur park management sim Parkasaurus is looking to wow guests with a whole new, decidedly more acquatic, selection of exhibits from today, 11th August, with the arrival of its new Sea Monsters DLC on PC. Building on Parkasaurus' core management action - which takes obvious inspiration from the likes of Theme Park and DinoPark Tycoon - the new Sea Monsters DLC introduces 11 aquatic reptiles and fish, as well as corresponding flooded enclosures, for players to install on their quest to create the ultimate dino-flavoured tourist attraction. If you're looking for specifics, those new dinos are Elasmosaurus, Plesiosaurus, Mosasaurus, Atopodentatus, Sarcosuchus, Archelon, Dunkleosteus, Liopleurodon, Ichthyosaurus, Placodus, and Megalodon. But Sea Monsters also introduces three new campaign missions, three new biomes, and 20+ exhibit items and hats - all of which will cost £5.19/$6.99 USD on Steam. Read more  ( 15 min )
  • Open

    Meta iOS apps accused of injecting code into third-party websites
    Company insists it's doing so 'to honor people’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) choices' Meta's Instagram and Facebook apps on iOS devices have been injecting JavaScript code into third-party websites from their custom in-app browser, gaining access to data that would be unavailable were those pages loaded in a stand-alone, WebKit-based iOS browser.…  ( 6 min )
    Twitter unveils US midterm election integrity plans, upsets almost everyone
    Don't feed the trolls? Users deem policy an attack on conservatives, dystopian, and election manipulation Twitter has announced its plans to fight misinformation during the 2022 US midterm elections, including activating its Civic Integrity Policy (CIP).…  ( 5 min )
    US reveals 'Target' pic of Conti man with $10m reward offer
    Fashion Police chipping in on the bounty related to costliest strain of ransomware on record The US government is putting a face on a claimed member of the infamous Conti ransomware group as part of a $10 million reward for information about five of the gang's crew.…  ( 5 min )
    Scientists find gasses from Earth in rocks from early Moon
    The discovery could help scientists further understand the origins of life Moon meteorites found on Earth contain trace gasses that lend further support to the widely held belief that our largest natural satellite formed from chunks of our planet that were ejected in a massive impact.…  ( 4 min )
    Microsoft trumps Google for 2021-22 bug bounty payouts
    Another $13.7m handed out to researchers, but then again it does have an awful lot of attack surfaces Microsoft appears to have beat Google on the bug bounty front, with $13.7 million in rewards spread out over 335 researchers.…  ( 5 min )
    AWS takes a shot at the private 5G network
    Well, more like 4G LTE right now, and you'll probably need someone to put up the radio Amazon Web Services has waded into the private mobile network marketplace with AWS Private 5G.…  ( 4 min )
    BT union announces 48-hour strike action in protest over pay
    26,000 engineers and call center operators to down tools again this month The union representing upset BT workers has served notice on the one-time UK state owned telco that tens of thousands of engineers and call center operators will down tools for two more days of strikes this month.…  ( 5 min )
    Ubuntu 22.04.1: Slightly late, but worth the upgrade
    Latest shine on the Jammy Jellyfish brings ton of fixes to keep you working smoothly The first point-release of the newest Ubuntu is here, which marks the stage it formally becomes the new long-term-support release.…  ( 5 min )
    Intel ups protection against physical chip attacks in Alder Lake
    Repurposes logic originally used for spotting variations in voltage, timing in older circuits to help performance Black Hat  Intel has disclosed how it may be able to protect systems against some physical threats by repurposing circuitry originally designed to counter variations in voltage and timing that may occur as silicon circuits age.…  ( 5 min )
    Google fined $42.5m over misleading Android location settings in Australia
    Ad behemoth committed to 'providing the most helpful products possible' Google is being ordered to pay A$60 million ($42.5 million) in penalties to Australia's competition and national consumer law regulator regarding the collection and use of location data on Android phones.…  ( 5 min )
    Emergency services call-handling provider: Ransomware forced it to pull servers offline
    Advanced's infrastructure still down and out, recovery to take weeks or more Advanced, the MSP forced to shut down some of its servers last week after identifying an "issue" with its infrastructure hosting products, has confirmed a ransomware attack and says recovery will be in the order of weeks.…  ( 5 min )
    Microsoft: Outlook desktop app crashing due to missing identity setting
    A new Windows esport event: Opening Outlook Outlook sometimes goes wrong and even Microsoft occasionally can't work out why, judging by a freshly published Microsoft 365 support article.…  ( 4 min )
    Our software is perfect. If something has gone wrong, it must be YOUR fault
    Hello customer, can I help you? Ha ha, just kidding, of course I won’t Something for the Weekend  "That's it! I've had enough of this! I'm leaving!"…  ( 8 min )
    Microsoft open-sources its emojis as part of new design philosophy
    No Clippy, though, and that philosophy only seems to go so far Microsoft open-sourced most of its emoji library this week.…  ( 4 min )
    'I wonder what this cable does': How to tell thicknet from a thickhead
    Termin-what? Why can't I connect directly to the network On Call  Is a Loose Cannon worse than a Big Cheese? What happens when the two are combined? Stir in some overconfidence and you have today's entry in the On Call archives.…  ( 5 min )
    Asteroids may shoot pebbles into shallow temporary orbits, boffins believe
    OSIRIS-Rex saw this happening. An odd meteorite suggests why and how In 2019, scientists clocked something they'd never seen before: an asteroid named Bennu appeared to be popping off swarms of pebbles. Research published Thursday may go some way to explain why.…  ( 4 min )
    US military fuels eVTOL research with $75M contract
    The renewed agreement more than doubles the DoD's deal with Joby Aviation A flying taxi company with plans to take to the skies by 2024 has just received a $45 million cash infusion from the United States Department of Defense to explore military applications.…  ( 5 min )
    After eleven-year wait, Atlassian customers promised custom domains in 2023
    Some got so cranky waiting they made a t-shirt celebrating the 'CLOUD-6999' Jira ticket On July 8, 2011, Atlassian Cloud posted a Jira ticket titled "Allow custom domains for Cloud apps".…  ( 4 min )
    VMware offers cloudy upgrade lifeline to legacy vCenter users
    But warns 'upcoming major release of vSphere' will break some plugins It's not often that a double dot release of a product adds significant functionality, but VMware did just that on Thursday with version 4.4.1 of its Cloud Director Availability product, which adds the ability to migrate aged and unsupported versions of vCenter to the cloud.…  ( 4 min )
    Court voids 34,000 unfair Fuji Xerox contracts
    Required customers to pay for software they did not receive, among other sins Australia’s Federal Court has voided 34,000 contracts that Fuji Xerox’s local outposts offered to local small business customers, after they were found to be unfair in many ways.…  ( 4 min )
    FAANGs failing on keeping user data safe from bug hunters
    Time to call in the legal team Black Hat  Dylan Ayrey, a bug hunter and CEO of Truffle Security, discovered a big data company credential dump containing personal information belonging to about 50,000 of its users, and still hasn't fixed it. …  ( 5 min )
    FTC ponders proper punishment for commercial data 'surveillance' and shoddy security
    Got thoughts on the online panopticon? The FTC wants to hear The US Federal Trade Commission on Thursday announced an effort to formulate privacy rules to deter unwelcome online monitoring and shoddy data security.…  ( 6 min )
    Higher risks and premiums are creating critical gap in cyber insurance
    Most organizations don’t have the financial resources necessary to address ransomware and other cyberattacks, BlackBerry says Black Hat  Many organizations are increasingly unprepared to deal with the skyrocketing costs of a ransomware attacks, at a time when the number of incidents and the payments demanded by cybercriminals are rising rapidly.…  ( 5 min )
    Security needs to learn from the aviation biz to avoid crashing
    'Until someone has to go to jail for doing it wrong the teeth are not going to be the same' Black Hat video  The security industry needs to take a leaf from the manual of an industry where smart incident response is literally life and death, if it is to fix systemic problems.…  ( 5 min )
    Scientists unveil a physics-defying curved space robot
    It can move without anything to push off from, but only via curved spacetime A team of scientists from Georgia Tech say they've built a robot that can move without anything to push against - a discovery that seems to violate the law of conservation momentum. …  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Asus ROG Swift OLED monitor hands-on: bright, bold windows into a possible PC gaming future
    If you’ve drooled over the OLED panel in your phone or TV and decided you’d like the same tech for your PC games, you basically have the choice of a single model each from Gigabyte and Alienware. Asus, then, are about to increase the number of OLED gaming monitors on the market by 100%, with the ROG Swift PG48UQ and ROG Swift PG42UQ. And I’ve just had a brief, but generally impressive, play around with them. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Space For Sale is a sandbox space builder that looks like alien Animal Crossing
    Of the many games announced during THQ Nordic's Showcase this evening, Space For Sale is the one that caught my eye the most, primarily because it looks a bit like Animal Crossing with aliens. In it, you play a small stubby astronaut who dreams of hitting it big as an intergalactic property developer. Man, they really took the phrase 'colony sim' to its literal extreme, didn't they? Are we sure that isn't Tom Nook under the helmet there? The proportions defintiely seem right, is all I'm saying. I just hope the rent you end up charging isn't... astronommical. Sorry. Here's the reveal trailer. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Alone In The Dark returns to Derceto Manor in new reimagining of the 90s horror classic
    Surprise! Survival horror series Alone In The Dark returns - again! This time it's a reimagining of the original 1992 game, where you'll delve into Derceto Manor as returning characters Emily Hartwood and Edward Carnby in an attempt to figure out what's happened to Hartwood's missing uncle. As you'd expect, it does not go terribly well. But hey, it looks like it makes for a pretty good time. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Burnout meets Hot Wheels in new sandbox racer Wreckreation
    Three Fields Entertainment are responsible for lots of games with "dangerous" in their title: Dangerous Driving, Danger Zone, and Dangerous Golf. But now they've got a new racing game in the works which eschews their previous naming convention for something that'll make you say with a wry smile and a shake of the head, "I see what you did there". It's called Wreckreation (you know, like 'recreation', not Wreck-reaction, or Wreck–eation) and its reveal trailer looks a bit like if Burnout and Hot Wheels went for a joyride together. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Ghostrunner devs next game is a retro-inspired RTS base builder
    What qualifies as a "next-gen" RTS game? Is it shinier graphics? More in-depth tactical choices? Well, Ghostrunner and Graven devs Slipgate Ironworks hope to provide an answer with their latest real-time tactics base-building game, Tempest Rising. Revealed earlier this evening during THQ Nordic's summer showcase, Tempest Rising is a retro-inspired strategy game where you'll take control of three factions fighting for a rare mineral. And yep, that mineral is called 'Tempest'. Here's the reveal trailer. Read more  ( 18 min )
    I think my cats hate video games, and I'm absolutely devastated
    As many of you well know, I rather enjoyed cat adventure Stray recently. As an owner of two tortoiseshells myself, it was right up my alley. I do, however, have a confession to make. When I started seeing other real life cats enjoying the game alongside their respective humans, I began to feel sad and a bit left out. You see, my cats Maple and Midna (still!) haven't shown any interest in Stray whatsoever, not even flicking up their ears in response to the cat's in-game meow. I'm not gonna lie, it kinda broke my heart a little bit. However, I'm beginning to think their (clear and apparent) hatred of video games goes further than simple disinterest. I was playing A Plague Tale: Requiem for the first time last week, a game famous for its swarms of screeching rats, and STILL nothing. They love hunting rats and bringing them home to leave as little presents for us on our back door step. Heck, they'll even wig out and go into prowl mode when they hear them scrabbling away underneath our floorboards (yes, we do have a rat problem in our house). But clearly, their ice cold little murder hearts are unmoved by their video game equivalents. Is this what it's like when your children reject your hobbies and go and sulk in their rooms for the rest of the day? Because it sure does feel like it. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Zapling Bygone's tentacly skull-stealing hivemind is... kind of neat?
    "Metroidvania" is a terrible phrase that gets in the way of its own definition and I hate it. It does, however, still apply to Zapling Bygone. Describing it in less mechanical terms could make it sound creepy. You're a spore of an all-consuming hivemind, dropped on an unfamiliar planet to assimilate it. You move by skittering about on wobbly green tentacles, leaping and climbing and clinging and lashing out at living things with them, then absorbing the green muck that bursts out, and periodically consuming a creature powerful enough to be worth assimilating. And wearing its skull in the centre of your tentacle mass, because why not. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Isometric turn-based RPG Metal Slug Tactics delayed into 2023
    Turn-based tactical RPG Metal Slug Tactics has been delayed. Saying that "the squad needs a bit more time in the shop to prepare for the battles ahead," the publisher has announced that it'll now be coming out in 2023. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Infinity Ward shares a peek at upcoming Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 map Farm 18
    Infinity Ward have shared a small peek at an upcoming Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 map, Farm 18. The TikTok mostly gives some design details from a couple of the developers who worked on it, but does also show about five seconds of gameplay at the beginning. Read more  ( 16 min )
    2D Souls-like Moonscars slashes into stores in September
    Pixel art Souls-like Moonscars has announced that it'll be releasing on September 27th. Protagonist Grey Irma will set off into a gorgeous world to search for the sculptor who made her and find answers to her existence. And also to absolutely whack some monsters with a gigantic sword along the way. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Humble's Resident Evil bundle nets you 11 Resi games for £25
    With the Netflix Resident Evil series going down like a blood-filled lead balloon, you may be thinking it's high time you revisited the Resident Evil games to wipe the show from your memory banks. Handily, Humble have a pretty good Resident Evil bundle going on right now, which nets you 11 Resident Evil games - including the excellent Resident Evil 2 Remake and Resident Evil 7 - for a very agreeable £24.70. It runs from now until August 24th, and is raising money in support of charity Direct Relief and their efforts to help the people of Ukraine. Read more  ( 17 min )
    MultiVersus' delayed season one and battle pass are coming next week
    Crossover fanfiction Smash-like MultiVersus has announced that its previously delayed season one and battle pass will be launching on Monday, August 15th. Morty, also previously delayed, will be making his debut on August 23rd, and other new additions are planned throughout the season. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Tower Of Fantasy bug squishes characters until they're 2D
    Players checking out anime gacha MMO Tower Of Fantasy have been running into some strange bugs. Though the server issues that were being experienced at launch seem to be mostly fixed, other glitches are now being uncovered, not least of which is the ability to turn your character into a cartoon character who fell underneath a steamroller. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    An Alone in the Dark reboot is coming from the Soma and Amnesia: Dark Descent writer
    At today's THQ Nordic 2022 Digital Showcase, developer Pieces Interactive announced an Alone in the Dark reboot, due to release on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC. There's no release date yet, but in a behind-closed-doors preview event, we were told the game is currently in 'pre-alpha' – so don't expect it anytime soon (though it has been in development since 'late 2019'). THQ Nordic's executive producer Michael Paeck says that recent games (like the Resident Evil remakes, Silent Hill titles, and Dead Space) go for ‘terror’ more than 'horror', and the team wants this new title to go back to what made the original 1992 Alone in the Dark special. The team constantly referred to the dense, rich atmosphere of the first game, and how much it wants to recreate that in this new game – some 30 years after the original launched. From a debut trailer we've seen so far, the game seems similar to the Resident Evil remakes Capcom has seen so much success with. It's a complete rethink of the first game, with the SOMA and Amnesia: Dark Descent writer, Mikael Hedberg, coming in to head up the narrative on the the project. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Save data from Splatoon 2 can be transferred to Splatoon 3
    Did you know that save data from Splatoon 2 can be transferred to Splatoon 3? Well, now you know. And there's even better news: according to the official Splatoon 3 website, you will also receive save data bonuses. You can transfer save data once per Nintendo Account by launching Splatoon 3 or entering the lobby while connected to the internet. To transfer, and save data from Splatoon 2 must be on the same system with the same user account. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Attention all Netflix subscribers: Please, use your excellent free games before they’re taken away from you
    No-one is playing Netflix’s games. Well, no, that’s not true – 1% of Netflix subscribers are. But that means that over 200 million people have access to, say, one of the best strategy games out there… and probably don’t even know about it. For the more casual players, interested in less intensive and more cosy affairs, there’s the likes of Poinpy, Krispee Street, and Knittens. If you’re a nut for Stranger Things and have been humming Running Up That Hill and Master of Puppets since the one-two punch of those musical finales, you’ll probably find the likes of Stranger Things 3: The Game and Stranger Things: 1984 both worth your time. But the odds are you don’t even know these games are available as part of your subscription fee. Until I started writing this piece, I didn’t even know how difficult it was to access the games on various platforms – Netflix hasn’t exactly been communicative about promoting them to its still-humongus user base, has it? To make matters more complicated, you can’t play the games via the app, but instead you need to head to the mobile store of your platform of choice (iOS or Android) and download the games from there. Anything viable with your Netflix subscription will be indicated with that trademark red N logo , and listed via a dedicated in-app tab on the homescreen. Clicking that – or finding a relevant game in your storefront of choice – will prompt a Netflix log-in, and from there you can play the game. For free. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Remember PT? Kojima definitely does
    Hideo Kojima took to Twitter just under an hour ago, and if you were simply doom-scrolling and not reading, you might've felt your heart skip a beat if you're a horror fan. No, Kojima is not sharing any teasers from his upcoming horror project with Xbox. He simply shared the P.T. artwork again. Again, no, there's no new P.T. announcements. It isn't coming back from the dead. In fact, it still isn't even downloadable anywhere unless you're tracking it – or its clones - down by nefarious means. Kojima tweeted that "It's been 8 years", and, well, he isn't wrong. It's been eight years since what could've been the best Silent Hill game – a complete revival for the Konami series from Metal Gear Solid's best – was robbed from us. Fortunately for me, who will not stop rambling on about P.T. and the loss of Silent Hills for the life of me, I've been reminded that I'm not alone. Read more  ( 16 min )
    League of Legends 2023 preseason jungle changes are coming with... pets?
    In case you didn't see the sneaky League of Legends leaks that slipped out yesterday, you may be surprised to hear that the jungle role is set to undergo some major changes during the 2023 Pre-season. This includes aids for jungle pathing, jungle camp leashing, and jungle pets which appear to be the answer to stale itemisation in the role. According to the official release for this update, jungle was a role that was actively avoided by a significant number of players. While the goal apparently isn’t to dumb down the role, some areas of difficulty are being reworked to remove this barrier of entry and allow for greater skill expression in other areas. Let start with the pets - by a large margin the most brow-raising addition to the role. While the folks at Riot Games aren’t giving up details on how exactly these will work, we know they’re an answer to the bland blue smite / red smite itemisation. This is being added to make the process of killing jungle camps a bit more exciting - rather than make it a practice of dull minion farming. Read more  ( 16 min )
    PS Plus Premium’s August update is good, bad, and ugly
    Earlier this week, we heard about the next batch of games coming to bulk out the PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium tiers on Sony’s newly dressed-up subscription service. At first glance, it’s not a bad offering – for owners of PS Plus Extra, you'll be able to pick up three different Yakuza titles (including the best one, Yakuza 0) – but beyond that, there are some glaring issues with this month’s rollout. Sure, these three triple-A RPG games are a fantastic entry point for anyone jostling to get into the series for the first time. You can even come in at the ground floor, play Yakuza 0, and get to know gangland heartthrob Kazuma Kiryu and his stomping grounds of Kabukichō. For the sake of the headline at the top of this piece, this is Good. Being able to play the first three full chapters of the Yakuza series (with the promise of the rest of the saga to come to PS Plus later) is objectively Good. There is nothing Bad, or indeed Ugly, about that. It’s moves like this that keep PS Plus a viable rival to Xbox Game Pass, and halt critics of the service calling it ‘a disaster’. Read more  ( 17 min )
    VG247's The Best Games Ever Podcast – Ep.12: Best game that you hated for a very specific reason
    Disclaimer: For legal reasons some of the names of the people involved in this story have been altered. ”Steve,” exclaimed the supply teacher, Miss Personality Vacuum. ”Yes, Miss,” replied Steve. Read more  ( 18 min )
    MultiVersus Season 1 start date confirmed for next week, Morty coming later
    It's been a fairly bumpy road, but finally we have a solid release date for the first proper season of Multiversus: August 15. A statement from the game's official account over on Twitter confirmed the new release date for the multiplatform, Smash-like fighting game, and noted that the next character – the eponymous Morty from Rick and Morty – will be available from August 23. “We’re excited to announce Season 1 will begin on August 15 with a brand-new Battle Pass for you to earn in-game rewards!” says a tweet announcing the new date. “We can also confirm Morty will join the character roster on August 23 as part of Season 1. We look forward to sharing more in the coming weeks!” Read more  ( 16 min )
    Kirby's Dream Buffet is all about inhaling sweet treats, and releases next week
    After Kirby made their grand 3D debut with Kirby and The Forgotten Land, Kirby fans just can't get enough of the positively pink puff ball. So, Nintendo have given keen fans like me exactly what they want in the form of Kirby's Dream Buffet, which has finally had its release date revealed. In a tweet from Nintendo of America, a three-minute gameplay trailer for the title has been shown off, and the release date has been announced for 17 August, 2022. That's just next week! Needless to say, Kirby's 30th Anniversary has gone down a treat this year, and what better way to celebrate than with a game that lets Kirby and friends eat just as many treats as they want and deserve? Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    FFmpeg Begins Integrating Intel oneVPL Support
    Intel has contributed support for their oneVPL open-source video processing library to the upstream FFmpeg project for that widely-used, cross-platform multimedia library...  ( 5 min )
    Intel Preps HWMON Support For Linux Driver To Expose Power / Voltage / Energy Reporting
    While much of the Intel Arc Graphics "Alchemist" (DG2) support appears squared away for Linux 6.0 besides the support still being hidden behind the flag requiring i915.force_probe= to actually enable the experimental support, there still are various DG2 discrete GPU features being tackled by the open-source Intel kernel graphics drivers. One of those "extras" still working its way to the kernel is HWMON subsystem integration to be able to expose power / voltage / energy reporting...  ( 5 min )
    Radeon Pro Software For Enterprise 22.Q2 For Linux Released
    Released in June was the Radeon PRO Software for Enterprise 21.Q2 to deliver AMD's enterprise-vetted graphics driver stack to Windows users. Meanwhile recently debuting is the long-awaited adjacent Radeon Pro Software for Enterprise for Linux driver update...  ( 5 min )
    AMD Posts Linux Audio Driver For The "Pink Sardine"
    The colorful fishy codenames are not over for AMD's Linux driver crew! While on the GPU side they have moved to IP block-by-block enablement strategy for their future GPUs, over on the audio co-processor side AMD posted a series of patches today under the "Pink Sardine" codename...  ( 5 min )
    Mesa 22.2 Gaming Performance With Radeon RX 6700/6800 XT Graphics Cards On Linux
    With Mesa 22.2 bringing many new features, you may be curious about how the performance of this next Mesa3D release is looking. For your viewing pleasure today are benchmarks of Mesa 22.2 back from the day it was branched against that of the stock Mesa 22.0 on Ubuntu 22.04 if you have been wondering whether it's worthwhile upgrading... Benchmarks for this article from the current-generation Radeon RX 6700 XT and RX 6800 XT graphics cards.  ( 4 min )
    F2FS Low-Memory Mode, Atomic Write Improvements For Linux 6.0
    The Flash Friendly File-System (F2FS) continues showing its a formidable file-system option for flash memory devices, especially SSDs and mobile hardware. With Linux 6.0 there are yet more improvements for this file-system driver...  ( 4 min )
    Zink Squeezes Some More Performance Optimizations In Mesa 22.2 For OpenGL On Vulkan
    Valve contractor Mike Blumenkrantz who works on Zink for OpenGL implemented atop Vulkan has managed some more performance optimizations with the upcoming Mesa 22.2 quarterly feature release...  ( 5 min )
    Intel's Clear Linux Taps -O3 For Its Kernel Builds
    While Intel's performance-optimized Clear Linux rolling-release distribution is known for its aggressive performance optimizations, their kernel build had been going with the default "-O2" optimization but last week did switch over to rolling their kernel with -O3...  ( 4 min )
    LoongArch Enables PCI & Other Features For Linux 6.0
    While support for the loongArch Chinese CPU architecture was merged in Linux 5.19, it wasn't actually enough to yield a booting system due to some driver code not yet being finished and ready for merging in time. LoongArch was allowed to merge that preliminary code in v5.19 so the Glibc support could land and now for Linux 6.0 more of the CPU port is ready to hit the kernel...  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Poliovirus detected in NYC sewage; health officials urge vaccination
    Meanwhile, officials in London reported finding poliovirus over 100 times in sewage.  ( 6 min )
    LG plans to introduce 20-inch OLED panels this year
    The smallest consumer OLED TV LG makes currently measures 42 inches.  ( 5 min )
    How to upgrade to Windows 11, whether your PC is supported or not
    Supported or not, new or old, this is everything you need to know.  ( 10 min )
    Betelgeuse is bouncing back after blowing its top in 2019
    "We're watching stellar evolution in real time."  ( 6 min )
    Xiaomi clones the Galaxy Fold, makes it 40% thinner, adds a bigger battery
    Samsung hasn't changed the Galaxy Fold battery density for four years, and it shows.  ( 5 min )
    US approves Google plan to let political emails bypass Gmail spam filter
    Plan came after GOP complaints, but FEC says it doesn't violate ban on contributions.  ( 5 min )
    The Soviet Union once hunted endangered whales to the brink of extinction
    Scientists opposed whaling and secretly tracked its toll.  ( 5 min )
    Epson’s bricked printers highlight the industry’s reparability problem
    Printer makers have a history of invasive practices that hurt user repairability, experience.  ( 6 min )
    Samsung heir pardoned due to South Korean economic needs
    Lee's ascendancy to Samsung chairman position key to "vitalizing the economy."  ( 5 min )
    Google adds instant cloud-streaming button to web searches for games
    It's not just Stadia, either; non-Google streaming rivals also get featured.  ( 5 min )
    Rocket Report: SpaceX sees rideshare demand, Russia’s odd launch deal with Iran
    "One of the questions that we’re getting a lot is, 'How full are you guys?'"  ( 7 min )
    The best cheap Android phones
    Want a smartphone but don't want to spend $1,000? We've got you covered.  ( 8 min )
    CDC no longer gently recommends COVID precautions most weren’t following anyway
    Unvaccinated people no longer need to quarantine and physical distancing is de-emphasized.  ( 6 min )
    I’m a security reporter and got fooled by a blatant phish
    Think you're too smart to be fooled by a phisher? Think again.  ( 6 min )
    Amazon studio plans lighthearted show of Ring surveillance footage
    Company with notable footage-sharing issues wants to do it more, but funny.  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Shirish Agarwal: Mum and Books
    The last day The first lesson I would like everybody to know and have is to buy two machines, especially a machine to check low blood pressure. I had actually ordered one from Amazon but they never delivered. I hope to sue them in consumer court in due course of time. The other one is a blood sugar machine which I ordered and did get, but the former is more important than the latter, and the reason why will be known soon. Mum had stopped eating solids and was entirely on liquids for the last month of her life. I did try enticing her however I could with aromatic food but failed. Add to that we had weird weather this entire year. June is supposed to be when the weather turns and we have gentle showers, but this whole June it felt like we were in an oven. She asked for liquids whenever…  ( 17 min )
    Wouter Verhelst: Upgrading a Windows 10 VM to Windows 11
    I run Debian on my laptop (obviously); but occasionally, for $DYAJOB, I have some work to do on Windows. In order to do so, I have had a Windows 10 VM in my libvirt configuration that I can use. A while ago, Microsoft issued Windows 11. I recently found out that all the components for running Windows 11 inside a libvirt VM are available, and so I set out to upgrade my VM from Windows 10 to Windows 11. This wasn't as easy as I thought, so here's a bit of a writeup of all the things I ran against, and how I fixed them. Windows 11 has a number of hardware requirements that aren't necessary for Windows 10. There are a number of them, but the most important three are: Secure Boot is required (Windows 10 would still boot on a machine without Secure Boot, although buying hardware without at least…  ( 5 min )
    Guido Günther: On a road to Prizren with a Free Software Phone
    Since people are sometimes slightly surprised that you can go onto a multi week trip with a smartphone running free sofware so only I wanted to share some impressions from my recent trip to Prizren/Kosovo to attend Debconf 22 using a Librem 5. It's a mix of things that happend and bits that got improved to hopefully make things more fun to use. And, yes, there won't be any big surprises like being stranded without the ability to do phone calls in this read because there weren't and there shouldn't be. After two online versions Debconf 22 (the annual Debian Conference) took place in Prizren / Kosovo this year and I sure wanted to go. Looking for options I settled for a train trip to Vienna, to meet there with friends and continue the trip via bus to Zagreb, then switching to a final 11h dir…  ( 4 min )
    Ben Hutchings: Debian LTS work, July 2022
    No content preview
  • Open

    Cult of the Lamb släppt och betygen är riktigt, riktigt bra
    Kanske något för Spelhelgen™?  ( 6 min )
    Det här spelar FZ i helgen - vad spelar du?
    Covidkur, tok-action och kära återbesök. Hur ser dina spelplaner ut?  ( 6 min )
    Spider-Man Remastered - Se gameplay från pc-versionen
    Vi lirar det uppsnyggade Spidde-spelet.  ( 6 min )
    Geoff Keighley om Gamescoms öppningsshow: räkna med överraskningar
    23 augusti är det dags.  ( 6 min )
    FZ Play - Spider-Man Remastered på pc
    Brottsbekämpningen börjar klockan 20.  ( 5 min )
    Gotham Knights visar sitt Gotham City, betydligt större än i något Arkham-spel
    No content preview  ( 6 min )
    Diskutera - Spelbranschens värsta pr-katastrofer
    Usla presentationer som dödat hypen för ett spel - berätta vilka du minns.  ( 6 min )
    21.00 i kväll - se THQ Nordic Digital Showcase visa nytt
    No content preview  ( 6 min )
    Metal Slug Tactics försenas till 2023
    Den sjätte förseningen vi skriver om i augusti.  ( 6 min )
    Path of Exile-expansion släpps nästa vecka - Path of Exile 2-betatest sommaren 2023
    Gratis som vanligt.  ( 6 min )
    Svenska Thunderfuls vd avgår efter mångmiljonförlust
    Minus 21 miljoner kronor på ett kvartal.  ( 6 min )
    Det lovande PvE-överlevnadsspelet Nightingale försenas till nästa år
    För att uppgradera till Unreal Engine 5.  ( 6 min )
    Jaktspelet Way of the Hunter får en videogenomgång inför släppet
    16 augusti är det dags att utforska 180 kilometer jaktmark.  ( 6 min )
    David Braben slutar som VD för Elite-utvecklaren Frontier Developments
    Men stannar hos företaget.  ( 6 min )
    Ta en videofärd genom Total War: Warhammer 3:s massiva Immortal Empires-karta
    En 13 minuter lång genomgång av platser och fraktioner.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    AMD RDNA 3 GPU Specs: Up To 12,288 ALUs, 96MB Infinity Cache
    Angstronomics reveals the potential specifications for AMD's looming RDNA 3 silicon.  ( 59 min )
    New X-NAND Technology Doubles Flash Write Speeds
    Gen 2 X-NAND technology may increase the throughput of our SSDs at no extra cost, according to a California company.  ( 59 min )
    Intel's Tunable Replica Circuit Tech Uses Telemetry to Detect Cyberattacks
    Intel develops Tunable Replica Circuit technology to prevent non-invasive physical glitch attacks.  ( 59 min )
    AMD's Ryzen 7000 Mobile Pink Sardine APUs Are In The Works
    A new codename from AMD known as Pink Sardine has emerged in Linux. The codename may correspond to AMD's upcoming Ryzen 7000 Phoenix mobile APUs.  ( 59 min )
    XMG Unveils New Ryzen 9 6900HX, RTX 3080 Ti Gaming Laptop
    New laptops from German firm XMG include Ryzen 9 CPUs and external liquid cooling.  ( 63 min )
    Intel Arc A380 Overclocks to 3.1 GHz, 55% Faster Than Stock
    It clocked at 3.1 GHz but consumed only 17.4W. It is a telltale sign that a volt-mod is behind the impressive 55% overclock compared to the stock 75W Arc A380 graphics card.  ( 59 min )
    Raspberry Pi Pico Used in Plug and Play System Monitor
    Dmytro Panin uses a Raspberry Pi Pico to monitor MacBook stats by outputting data to a Pimoroni Pico Display Pack module.  ( 62 min )
    AMD's EPYC 9654 96-Core Genoa CPU Pictured as Launch Is Looming
    AMD's final 96-core EPYC 9654 'Genoa' processors are presumably shipping to the company's partners.  ( 59 min )
    Mingda Magician Pro Review: More Bed, More Magic
    Mingda’s Magician Pro is an easy to use printer with a massive build volume.  ( 64 min )
    LG DualUp 28MQ780 Monitor Review: A Unique New Display Shape
    LG brings a new screen shape to the market with its 28-inch DualUp 28MQ780. It’s a 16:18-aspect IPS panel with 2560x2880 pixels, HDR and a wide color gamut. It’s the same as stacking two 21-inch screens vertically, except there’s no line in the middle.  ( 70 min )
    Russian-Made Baikal M1-Based Laptop Shows Up in Pre-Production
    Pre-Production BitBlaze Titan notebook based on Russian Baikal-M CPU demonstrated.  ( 60 min )
    Desktop CPU Sales Lowest in 30 Years, AMD Gains Market Share Anyway
    AMD makes big gains in desktop, mobile and server CPU markets.  ( 65 min )
  • Open

    Nyhetssammanfattning: Intel Arc, Nvidias priser och Samsungs vikbara drömmar
    Studion ekar tom denna fredag, men för den som vill skaffa sig en bild av veckans tekniknyheter sammanfattar @wittwang ett enkelt fredagspanelssubstitut.  ( 8 min )
    Sårbarhet hos Intels färska arkitekturer uppdagas
    Säkerhetsfunktionen SGX är inte helt säker hos arkitekturerna "Ice Lake" och "Alder Lake", där skyddad data kan läsas på grund av en bugg.  ( 6 min )
    Samsung: "År 2025 är vikbara standard i premiumsegmentet"
    Höga priser och mindre beprövad teknik avskräcker nog många från att hoppa på det vikbara tåget, men inom tre år tror Samsung att detta har vänt.  ( 6 min )
    Studie visar att energisnåla SSD-enheter har större miljöpåverkan än hårddiskar
    En energiintensiv produktionsfas kompenserar för det lägre effektuttaget SSD-enheter har vid drift, men studien förbiser och förenklar ett antal parametrar.  ( 6 min )
    Optimal minnesfrekvens för Ryzen 7000 kan bli 6 000 MHz
    Rykten pekar på en maximal frekvens för Infinity Fabric på 3 000 MHz för den kommande AMD Ryzen 7000-serien och tillhörande AM5-moderkort.  ( 6 min )
    Intels Arc-satsning blöder pengar – analysfirma förordar nedläggning
    I en artikel beskriver Jon Peddie Research hur Intels stora investeringar inte lyckas bära frukt, och att handlingskraftige Pat Gelsinger borde agera.  ( 7 min )
  • Open

    Force Feed
    No content preview
  • Open

    Untitled
    No content preview  ( 2 min )
  • Open

    yuzu the Nintendo Switch Emulator gets an easy Linux installer
    Good news for Linux and Steam Deck fans, the yuzu team have worked to bring the installer for the Nintendo Switch Emulator over to Linux properly.  ( 4 min )
    Retro racer Horizon Chase Turbo gets a big free Adventures game mode
    Horizon Chase Turbo is a very highly rated retro racing game from developer AQUIRIS and today it sees a huge free upgrade.  ( 4 min )
    Hollow Knight is getting cross-platform Steam Cloud Saves to help Steam Deck
    Hollow Knight developer Team Cherry has announced that an update due to go live on Monday, August 15th will bring a much needed change to the saving system.  ( 4 min )
    Valheim gets a small teaser as Iron Gate get back to work on Mistlands
    Valheim is due to get a huge upgrade at some point, which most players are now waiting on and Iron Gate have given the smallest of teasers on it again.  ( 4 min )
    Get loads of Resident Evil in the latest Humble Bundle
    Love Resident Evil and want to get a whole lot of it? Humble Bundle have put up the Resident Evil Decades of Horror bundle and it's a pretty full collection.  ( 4 min )
    Steam Deck got a few Beta updates recently so here's what's new
    While I was briefly away camping, Valve released a few Steam Deck Beta updates so here's a round-up of what's new in case you also missed it.  ( 4 min )
  • Open

    My New Comic Series
    I HAVE A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! It’s been one year since the duck made his first appearance with the burnout storyline, and now I’m proud to finally launch the beginning of Plucked Up as an ongoing slice-of-life comic series!  ( 1 min )
    Plucked Up: Nice Day
    The beginning of my new slice-of-life comic series!  ( 1 min )
  • Open

    5 Tools to Protect Your Email Address From Websites and Newsletters
    You can use these tools to get dummy email addresses to share with third parties. Your actual email address is not exposed.  ( 25 min )
  • Open

    Comic for 2022.08.12 - Imagine Dragons
    New Cyanide and Happiness Comic  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Coffee Cup Holes
    No content preview  ( 1 min )

  • Open

    Nvidia's GeForce GTX 2080 Prototype Shows Up In The Wild
    Out of nowhere, a "GTX 2080" prototype has surfaced online. It gives us a clue that Nvidia was considering extending its GTX 16 series lineup into an 80 series product.  ( 59 min )
    YMTC Ships Xtacking 2.0 3D NAND PCIe 4.0 SSDs Up to 6.2 GBps
    YMTC starts shipments of enterprise-grade PE310 PCIe Gen4 U.2 SSDs with Xtacking 2.0 3D NAND.  ( 59 min )
    Raspberry Pi Pico DAQ PCB Turns Microcontroller into Oscilloscope
    Alperen Akküncü has created a custom PCB that turns the Raspberry Pi Pico into a DAQ 4-channel oscilloscope tool.  ( 62 min )
    Cooler Master Launches Airflow-Focused PC Cases With Aggressive Front Ends
    Cooler Master reveals two new cases in its CMP lineup, featuring front mesh panels and ARGB fans.  ( 62 min )
    Ethereum Testnet Success Paves Way for 'The Merge' in September
    Ethereum today successfully transited its last testnet, Goerli, towards the final code to be implemented in mainnet. The software update to Ethereum's Virtual Machine will enable the transition to Proof-of-Stake, besides other upgrades.  ( 59 min )
    Revamped MemTest86 Can Highlight Bad ICs on Your DIMMs
    Highlighting precise DRAM chip error locations could open up repair and salvage options. Only works on Intel Alder Lake DDR5 and Z690 platforms for now.  ( 59 min )
    Go Big With Dells 34-Inch S3422DWG For $389: Real Deals
    If you want to play games or watch Netflix on a massive 34-inch screen, Dell's S3422DWG monitor for $389 is a fantastic option. Back down to its Prime Day sales price, this is the cheapest we've seen this widescreen beast.  ( 65 min )
    AMD's Encoder Tweaks Rival Nvidia, But Intel's AV1 Reigns Supreme
    AMD recently updated its AMF H.264 encoder with a new feature called Pre-Analysis, this feature boosts video quality equal to that of Nvidia's Turing and Ampere-based NVENC encoder.  ( 61 min )
    Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro Review: Practically Perfect Design
    Razer’s DeathAdder V3 Pro is a lightweight wireless gaming mouse that’s highly customizable and incredibly ergonomic.  ( 67 min )
    Chinese Trade Groups: CHIPS Act and Science Law Hinders Innovation
    Chinese trade associations claim that U.S. CHIPS Act and Science law will intensify semiconductor geopolitical competition.  ( 59 min )
    Michigan Man Builds Own ISP, Gets $2.6M From Government to Expand
    Jared Mauch’s rural FTTH service quickly expanded from 1 to 30 customers and currently has 70. But he now has $2.6m of government funding to allow provisioning for nearly 600 customers.  ( 59 min )
    HP Spectre x360 13.5 Review: Do-It-All Device
    The HP Spectre x360 13.5 is a full-featured 2-in-1 with plenty of ports, a sleek design, a colorful display and a sharp webcam. If only HP would stop installing so much software on it.  ( 74 min )
    Arc A750 Trades Blows With RTX 3060 Across Nearly 50 Games
    Intel shares new gaming benchmarks for the Arc A750 graphics card at 1080p and 1440p on various DirectX 12 and Vulkan titles.  ( 62 min )
  • Open

    Soccer Story is an adventure RPG about saving football with a "magical soccer ball"
    I grew up in a town where some people hated the colour green, because they supported Rangers FC and green was associated with their rivals, Celtic FC. They would smash green traffic lights, green street cabinets, green shop signs... I wonder what their reaction would be to Soccer Story, an "adventure RPG" about playing football-ish sports in a lush, green, almost Pokémon-like world. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Latest Dwarf Fortress video highlights new art and menus by taking the bins out
    As we've written about before, Dwarf Fortress is getting a Steam release with an official tileset, a new UI, and mouse controls. The latest video from Kitfox Games, who are handling the polished release, features original DF co-creator Zach Adams talking through new menus and artwork... while taking his fort's bins out. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Survival game Nightingale delayed until first half of 2023
    Another game which intended to release in 2022 has posted a JPG to Twitter. This time it's Nightingale, the survival game which was one of our favourite games from not-E3, which has announced a delay until "the first half of 2023." Read more  ( 16 min )
    EA say it's "fair" that players can buy controversial loot boxes in FIFA 23
    FIFA 23's Ultimate Team mode will follow previous games by including loot boxes, EA have confirmed. In the past few years, several studies have linked loot boxes with gambling, and several European countries have moved to regulate them. In a statement given to Eurogamer, EA said that Ultimate Team packs are "a part of FIFA that players love" and that "Giving players the choice to spend if they want to is fair." Read more  ( 16 min )
    Charge up your game controllers with 100 AA batteries for £13
    This is a bit different from what we normally cover, but I was going to order this for myself and thought it might be of interest to you, dear reader, as well. Anyway, you can get ten years' worth of AA batteries - 100 in total! - for just £13 at Amazon right now. This normally costs £18, so that's a nice little savings - and of course it's far cheaper per item than buying batteries in smaller packs. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Our favourite portable SSD is down to £77 at Amazon
    The Crucial X8 is our favourite portable SSD, thanks to its compact protective frame, convenient USB-A or USB-C connection and excellent performance. It's capable of transfer speeds up to 1050MB/s, minimising the time it takes to copy files to and from the drive, and offers low enough access times that you can easily run games from it too. It normally costs around £85, but today it's dropped to a historic low price of £77 - a great value for a portable NVMe SSD offering this level of performance. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Free-to-play brawler Rumbleverse launches with two new modes
    Free-to-play battle royale brawler Rumbleverse is now available on the Epic Games Store. It comes with two additional modes not seen in the pre-launch playtests: the chance to pair up with a pal in Duos and a sort of free roam practice mode called Playground. Read more  ( 16 min )
    No, I still haven't replaced my horrible decaying mousepad
    You knew it would happen. First the wound opened and sprayed you with viscera, then the skin peeled back to raw flesh, and this next step was bound to happen one day. Yet even as the lump shifted beneath your wrist, and you knew it was worming its way free, maybe it wouldn't? Maybe it would be fine? Maybe it would stay there. Please, let it stay there. You can't deal with losing it now. Oh god, let it stay there. Not now. Please, not now. But it happened (of course it did!). And you know what? You're okay. It wasn't the end of the world. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered: PC performance, system requirements and the best settings to use
    Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is landing on PC, and it’s pretty good! Co-developers Insomniac Games and Nixxes, who spoke to me this week about the port's development, have also taken the care to festoon this version of the open-world crim-puncher with various Windows-exclusive features. These span enhanced ray traced reflections and ultrawide monitor support to both Nvidia DLSS and (surprisingly, given it wasn’t in the initial PC features trailer) AMD FSR 2.0, adding to a list of visual options that already stretches into the sky like a Manhattan high rise. Let’s take a look, then, at how Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered performs on PC – as well as the best settings to keep it swingin’ real smooth like. Read more  ( 25 min )
    Anime MMO Tower Of Fantasy offers players free gifts after rocky launch
    Free-to-play gacha MMO Tower Of Fantasy was struggling with server issues after it lauched yesterday, but - touch wood - no more. The developers say that these are now fixed and that players should find it easier to log in and play. They've also said there's more fixes planned for the next couple of days. Read more  ( 16 min )
    The Electronic Wireless Show episode 197: the most annoying NPCs in video games
    Welcome once again to The Electronic Wireless Show podcast. As a counterpoint to the episode on the nicest blokes to hang out with in games, we've decided to talk about our most hated NPCs (a bonus prize to anyone who can guess which is the one we all say first). It's an interesting one to discuss, because the line between intentionally annoying and unintentionally annoying can be very thin. Plus everyone tends to find different things annoying. Disclaimer: you are not annoying, any similarities you have to characters we find annoying are coincidental. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Axiom Verge 2 is now available on Steam and Steam Deck
    Alien planet exploring Metroidvania Axiom Verge 2 came out a year ago, meaning its time as an Epic Games Store exclusive is up. Protagonist Indra and her drone buddy celebrate their release anniversary by grappling their way over to Steam today. Read more  ( 16 min )
    New Temtem trailer shows off final island coming with 1.0 release in September
    MMO creature battle 'em up Temtem has hatched some details on what to expect when it hits its 1.0 release next month. A new trailer gives details on the island known as "Tamer's Paradise," which hosts a bunch of challenges geared towards end-game players. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Genre-blending dystopia Sunday Gold releases next month, with a free prologue available now
    Turn-based-combat-escape-room-puzzler-RPG blend Sunday Gold will be coming out on September 13th. But if you want to get acquainted with its Cockney cast early, and get some practice with making your best comic book WHAP!s and POW!s, there's also a free prologue available on Steam now. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Russian invasion has dangerously destabilized cyber security norms
    The inside scoop on the Ukrainian IT army, and what could happen next Black Hat  The hacktivist attacks that have occurred during the ongoing war in Ukraine are setting a dangerous precedent for cyber norms — and infrastructure security, according to journalist and author Kim Zetter.…  ( 6 min )
    AWS and Splunk partner for faster cyberattack response
    OCSF initiative will give enterprise security teams an open standard for moving and analyzing threat data Black Hat  AWS and Splunk are leading an initiative aimed at creating an open standard for ingesting and analyzing data, enabling enterprise security teams to more quickly respond to cyberthreats.…  ( 6 min )
    Google gets the green light to flood US Gmail inboxes with political spam
    Federal Election Commission votes to let Google allow campaign email through filters The US Federal Election Commission on Thursday voted 4-1 to allow Google to create a program exempting qualified political email from Gmail spam filtering, despite emphatic objections from email users.…  ( 5 min )
    Ex-CIA security boss predicts coming crackdown on spyware
    Plus, spoiler alert: ransomware is gonna get a lot worse Black Hat video  It turns out that ex-CIA chief information security officers don't spill secrets at bars in Vegas. Or via Zoom, while pretending to be at a Black Hat cocktail party.…  ( 4 min )
    Sonatype spots another PyPI package behaving badly
    Identity of a real person was used to lend credence to a package that dropped cryptominer in memory Sonatype has unearthed yet more malware lurking on PyPI, this time a fileless Linux nasty designed to mine Monero and using the identity of a real person to lend credibility to the package.…  ( 4 min )
    General Motors charging mandatory $1,500 fee for three years of optional car features
    Don't want the services? You'll still have to pay for them, activated or not Drivers in the US and Canada are in for a bit of sticker shock as General Motors has made three years of its OnStar subscription service mandatory in many new vehicles at a cost of $1,500.…  ( 5 min )
    SmartNICs to make up 38% of network market by 2026
    Dell'Oro sees traditional NICs being displaced for most hyperscale cloud infrastructure SmartNICs are expected to play a significant part in growing the Ethernet adapter market, which is forecast to reach $5 billion by 2026, according to research outfit Dell'Oro.…  ( 4 min )
    Don't be surprised if your organization suffers multiple cyberattacks
    Failing to fix flaws, a crowded threat group scene, RaaS, and dependencies among crooks are fueling the trend Security experts spent years warning enterprises to expect cyberattacks and to plan their defenses accordingly, now Sophos researchers are saying organizations shouldn't be surprised if they get attacked multiple times.…  ( 6 min )
    Dealing with legacy issues around Red Hat crypto versions? Here's a fix
    RHEL SHA-ll speak unto RHEL… except from 9 to 6 If you're running a mixture of new and old RHEL versions, you may have problems SSHing from new to old. Luckily, someone has worked out a handy way around it.…  ( 4 min )
    There can be only one... Microsoft Excel Champion
    Welcome to the world of extreme modeling, techie style. How's your day going? Channel surfers seeking refuge from the world might have stumbled across an esport on ESPN2 that is as brilliant as it is horrifying.…  ( 3 min )
    FCC rejects Starlink's bid for US rural internet access funds
    Even those within the agency puzzled by the SpaceX decision when 'we have the technology to improve lives now' The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has rejected Starlink's application for subsidies under the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program.…  ( 5 min )
    Four charged with tricking Qualcomm into buying $150m startup
    Technically the chip giant already owned the tech due to real inventor’s contract, according to DoJ The US Department of Justice has charged four people with conspiring to fraudulently sell a startup for $150 million to a San Diego based multinational tech company that The Reg has identified as Qualcomm.…  ( 5 min )
    Want the very latest Windows Insider Dev Channel build? Check your disk space
    You might need to free up 24GB. A bug for now, but might be sign of way things are going Remember when you could run Windows from a floppy disk? The latest Windows 11 Dev Channel Insider build could need at least 24GB of free space to download and install.…  ( 4 min )
    Ex-Twitter staffer convicted of spying for Saudi Arabia
    Ahmad Abouammo is facing 10-20 years in prison for leaking PII from 6,000 Twitter accounts A former Twitter employee faces up to 20 years in prison after being convicted of spying for Saudi Arabia and its royal family.…  ( 4 min )
    BT wins networking contract for UK nuclear site Sellafield
    Paving the way for the role of AI in the future of nuclear waste processing UK telephony outfit British Telecom has won a five-year deal for networking at the Sellafield nuclear site in northwest England.…  ( 4 min )
    Supermicro pulls in a strong quarter thanks to rack-scale demand
    More customers also adopting the server maker's green computing products, CEO says Supermicro, server provider to the hyperscale cloud providers, has delivered better than expected figures for its fiscal Q4 2022, attributing it to a growing number of customers adopting its rack-scale solutions.…  ( 4 min )
    Rescuezilla 2.4 is here: Grab it before you need it
    A fork of Redo Rescue that outdoes the original – and beats Clonezilla too Version 2.4 of Rescuezilla - which describes itself as the "Swiss Army Knife of System Recovery," - is here and based on Ubuntu 22.04.…  ( 5 min )
    DoE digs up molten salt nuclear reactor tech, taps Los Alamos to lead the way back
    The collaborative effort pits supercomputers against the agency's corrosive reactor research After more than 50 years, molten salt nuclear reactors might be making a comeback. The US Department of Energy (DoE) has tapped Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to lead a $9.25 million study into the structural properties and materials necessary to build them at scale.…  ( 4 min )
    Intel, Amazon, and SpaceX asked to tuck into DARPA's Space-BACN
    Internetwork of satellite networks advances to 'actually building' stuff stage DARPA's attempt to build an internetwork of communications satellites – which operates under the fabulous name Space-BACN – has tapped Intel, SpaceX and others to build kit that will make its planned "Space-Based Adaptive Communications Node" a reality.…  ( 4 min )
    Cisco admits corporate network compromised by gang with links to Lapsus$
    Voice-phished their way in, but Switchzilla claims no damage done Cisco disclosed on Wednesday that its corporate network was accessed by cyber-criminals in May after an employee's personal Google account was compromised – an act a ransomware gang named "Yanluowang" has now claimed as its work.…  ( 5 min )
    SoftBank offloads part of Alibaba stake to raise much-needed cash
    Invested $20 million in 2000 and will pocket $34 billion and keep a slice worth more than that – for now Japan's SoftBank Group will offload almost half its holdings in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, netting over $20 billion to help it record a profit but casting doubts over Alibaba's prospects.…  ( 4 min )
    Economic uncertainty can't stop cloud growth
    You may have had your fill of chips – but AWS, GCP, and Azure are still hungry, analyst tells El Reg The hyperscalers and public cloud providers are barreling ahead, unfazed by a rapidly deteriorating economic outlook, according to a recent Dell'Oro Group report.…  ( 5 min )
    Microsoft joins India's monopoly-busting e-commerce multi-mart
    The Open Network for Digital Commerce could hardly ask for a more credible participant Microsoft has decided to open a store in India's Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) – an effort the nation hopes will make it harder for the likes of Amazon and Walmart-controlled Flipkart to dominate e-commerce in the world's second most populous nation.…  ( 4 min )
    Meta privacy red team lead: Does your business know its privacy adversaries?
    Ethical hackers, but for privacy programs Black Hat  Miscreants aren't only working to exploit flaws in an enterprise's security posture, they're also looking for holes in organizations' privacy programs to steal user data, according to Meta's Scott Tenaglia.…  ( 4 min )
    Boffins rate npm and PyPI package security and it's not good
    Guess what? Open source security still has gaps The Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF), as its name plainly states, aims to help make open source software more secure, but improvements flowing from its efforts are hard to find.…  ( 7 min )
    Tech industry stuck over patent problems with AI algorithms
    Lawyers at Google are unsure if they can patent chip floorplans created by machines The question of whether AI-generated outputs can be patented is impacting how technology companies can protect their intellectual property.…  ( 4 min )
    Ex-CISA chief Krebs calls for US to get serious on security
    Black Hat kicks off with call for single infosec agency with real clout and less confused crossover Black Hat  It's time to reorganize the US government and create a new agency focused solely on on digital risk management services, according to former CISA director Chris Krebs.…  ( 6 min )
    Google tells Apple to 'fix text messaging' in bid to promote RCS protocol
    iMessage talks to Android users via outdated SMS/MMS, ad giant complains Google has launched a campaign to pressure Apple to adopt Rich Communications Services (RCS), a protocol used by most mobile industry vendors but not the iPhone maker.…  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Play football and save the world in Not Tonight dev's adventure RPG Soccer Story
    If plain old football doesn't quite do it for you, but your interest is piqued when I say football but melded to a silly, sprawling action-RPG, then allow me to introduce you to Soccer Story from publisher No More Robots and Not Tonight developer PanicBarn, coming to Steam, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and Game Pass "soon". Soccer Story (which, despite the name and similar premise, is unrelated to developer Sidebar Games' magnificent Golf Story) is a single-player "physics-based" adventure in which players must quest, puzzle, and sport their way to restoring football - and, thus, peace and harmony - in a world where it's been banned. Soccer Story promises an adventure packed with "quirky characters, quests, rogue refs, and wack soccer-adjacent sports", where every problem - from solving puzzles to finding secrets - can be overcome with the help of your magic football. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Metal Slug Tactics delayed into next year
    Metal Slug Tactics, developer Leikir Studio's turn-based tactical twist on SNK's classic run-and-gun series, has been delayed and is now due to release on PC and Switch sometime next year. Announced last June, Metal Slug Tactics reunites familiar faces Marco, Eri, Fio, and Tarma as they lead the Peregrine Falcon Squad onto a different kind of battlefield, where the series' classic side-scrolling action makes way for "dynamic, strategic combat" on a grid-based map. Skill trees, perks, and a "super attack-fueling" adrenaline system have all been been promised upon Metal Slug Tactics' arrival, which was originally expected to occur at some point this year. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Ex-BioWare boss' Victorian fantasy adventure Nightingale delayed into next year
    Inflexion Games, the studio founded by former BioWare boss Aaryn Flynn, has announced a delay for its Victorian fantasy adventure Nightingale, with the game now expected to enter early access some time next year. Nightingale, described as a "shared world survival crafting game", was initially announced a few years back, but got its first proper unveiling at last year's The Game Awards. Its reveal was accompanied by an eye-catching trailer in which well-dressed ladies and gents travelled through portals to strange new worlds, full of wonderfully unsettling eldritch creatures. Inflexion was initially aiming to launch Nightingale into early access at some point this year, but the developer has now revised that plan, pushing the game's early access release back into the "first half of 2023". Read more  ( 15 min )
    Are Sony and Microsoft's squabbles over Call of Duty just business as usual?
    This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss the ongoing fallout from Microsoft and Sony's squabbling over Activision Blizzard and it's blockbuster franchise Call of Duty. If you've been living under a rock for the last six months, this all stems from Microsoft's intent to buy Activision for 68.7bn, which Sony isn't too happy about. Recently we've heard arguments from Sony offering some of its views on the deal - that it would be bad news for PlayStation, essentially - and now Microsoft itself has hit back. Microsoft has reiterated that it does not want to make Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive - for now, at least - and even said it would be an unprofitable move if it did so. Even more remarkably, it has also hit out at Sony for suggesting the Microsoft-Activision deal would stifle competition - and claimed PlayStation itself pays out money to block games coming to Xbox Game Pass. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Splatoon 3 idols Deep Cut are the internet's new faves
    Yesterday's Nintendo Direct featured all things Splatoon 3, and had plenty for returning players and newcomers to get excited about. People are especially hyped for Deep Cut, the new idol group that'll act as hosts throughout the game. Comprised of members Shiver, Frye and Big Man, Nintendo showed off one of Deep Cut's performances for Splatfest celebrations. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Fortnite begins teasing big Dragon Ball crossover
    The world of Dragon Ball is coming to Fortnite, because of course it is. Fans poking around in Fortnite's game files have known this crossover was coming for some time. Today, Epic Games - fresh from its two-week summer break - began teasing the collaboration. Fortnite's Dragon Ball event is expected to be a big one, with numerous characters coming to the game as skins, alongside weeks of tie-in challenges. Read more  ( 15 min )
    EA sticks with controversial loot boxes for FIFA 23 Ultimate Team
    EA has confirmed it's sticking with loot boxes for FIFA 23's Ultimate Team mode, after the company was effectively given the green light by the UK government's recent decision not to legislate the controversial in-game monetisation system. In a statement issued to Eurogamer, EA echoed many of its recent comments on Ultimate Team's card packs, which have come under fire from children's groups and researchers in recent years for their links to gambling, and from players for enabling pay-to-win in competitive modes. "We wholeheartedly believe that Ultimate Team and FUT Packs, which have been part of the game for more than a decade, are a part of FIFA that players love - fans love that the game reflects the real-world excitement and strategy of building and managing a squad. Giving players the choice to spend if they want to is fair," EA's statement reads. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Apex Legends' new season hits all-time Steam peak player count
    Following the launch of Season 14, which is known as Hunted, Apex Legends has seen a new peak player count on Steam. In fact, over 500,000 concurrent players joined in with Respawn's battle-royale, following the season's release on Tuesday. This is a first for the shooter, Twitter account AlphaINTEL noted. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Street Fighter 6 soundtrack heavily influenced by hip-hop culture
    Players can expect plenty of hip-hop in the Street Fighter 6 soundtrack as the game modernises the series, while honouring the past. In an interview with Spin, producer Shuhei Matsumoto and lead composer Yoshiya Terayama discussed the musical influences on the next game. "Street Fighter 6 is very respectful of past works, such as the original Street Fighter and Street Fighter 2. We are taking on new challenges while honouring that foundation. Also, you can definitely expect hip hop. We put a lot of effort into how it sounds," said Matsumoto. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Nintendo hit by new worker complaint in US
    Nintendo has been hit by a fresh worker complaint in the US, which a report suggests is due to the company's response to labour activism. Both Nintendo of America and Aston Carter, a company Nintendo uses to recruit workers, have been referred to the National Labor Relations Board over the matter, which alleges that a worker suffered over the company's "coercive rules". The complaint was first reported by Axios, which stated that allegations of this nature typically relate to cases where a worker claims a company has interfered with their right to unionise or discuss working conditions. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Trans Twitch streamer arrested by police and "terrorised" after swatting incident
    Twitch streamer Clara "Keffals" Sorrenti was "terrorised" by police when arrested after a swatting incident. The trans Canadian streamer recounted the event in a YouTube video titled "My life is in danger. I need your help", where she described being woken up by police officers pointing an assault rifle in her face at her home. She was subsequently taken into police custody where she was accused of crimes she did not commit. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Forspoken trailer getting rough response online
    So let me get this straight. I'm somewhere that's not what I would call the Eurogamer office. I'm seeing my name printed on the site. And... oh yeah I'm writing meme round-ups for Eurogamer. Yeah okay that is something I do now. I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. The latest Forspoken trailer was really asking for it though. Forspoken last made the headlines when its release date was pushed back from 11th October this year to 24th January 2023. It's back again, though this time for a more light-hearted reason. Read more  ( 17 min )
    The story of Games Workshop and Fighting Fantasy
    Imagine getting a phone call from a guy called Gary Gygax in America and he's reading a newsletter you wrote for a games business you're running out of a messy flat in London, and he likes it so much he wants to send you a copy of a new game he's working on called Dungeons & Dragons. You end up loving the game and he likes what you're about, so he grants you exclusive rights to introduce Dungeons & Dragons to the UK, and to Europe, and to sell it there for three years. You can only afford six copies but it doesn't matter: you'll soon be able to afford a lot more. That's not even the best story my guests have! They've done so much and created so much. That games business they were running? It was only Games Workshop, wasn't it - a business that would change the face of tabletop gaming. But, not content with running only that, this pair would work well into their nights to create a series of game books called Fighting Fantasy, making themselves best-selling authors in the process. The series has sold more than 20 million copies today. Read more  ( 14 min )
    Sony launches PlayStation games for PC page
    A new page has appeared on PlayStation's website dedicated to its games for PC. This page, which you can see here, does exactly what is says on the tin. Here you will find information on all of PlayStation's games that have been introduced to PC, such as Days Gone, God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn - but also details on upcoming releases. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Kirby's Dream Buffet launches next week via Nintendo Switch eShop
    Kirby's Dream Buffet launches next week, on Wednesday 17th August, priced at £13.49. As a reminder, this is the all-new downloadable Kirby game set for the Nintendo Switch eShop, which got announced just a month ago. A spin-off from the pink puffball's regular platforming antics, Dream Buffet sees up to four players roll around levels as different-coloured Kirby characters, gobbling up types of food and sweet treats. Whoever eats the most, wins! Read more  ( 15 min )
    Call of Duty Xbox exclusivity "wouldn't be profitable", Microsoft says
    Making Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox "simply wouldn't be profitable", Microsoft has said. The claim comes as part of a fresh war of words between Xbox and PlayStation, as Microsoft seeks to finalise its eye-opening $68.7bn buyout of Activision Blizzard. Specifically, it comes in response to Sony's recent objections to the deal - in which it argued that Call of Duty could not be rivalled, and that the franchise was vitally important to PlayStation as it influenced players' choice of console. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Splatoon 3's demo brings free Nintendo Switch Online trial with it
    Along with the upcoming demo for Splatoon 3, Nintendo is also offering Switch users a pretty awesome little perk. To get access to the demo, you will need to have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. However, not everyone who has a Switch necessarily wants to subscribe to NSO. To negate this, Nintendo is offering everyone who downloads the demo a code that will give them a seven day trial of its subscription service. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Report finds fewer Chinese youth play games following government restrictions
    Following the introduction of government-mandated gaming restrictions, 54 percent of Chinese youth are reportedly playing games within regulated hours. That's according to a new 2022 China Youth Gamers report from Niko Partners (thanks GamesIndustry.biz). The study found that 77 percent of youth are at least playing fewer hours per week, even though only 54 percent are within approved hours. Read more  ( 14 min )
    PowerWash Simulator's speedrunning scene puts both time and water under extreme pressure
    When PowerWash Simulator came out of Early Access, it became quite a hit amongst the team here at Eurogamer. I was curious to see whether I'd enjoy it too, so I cashed in the free month of Game Pass that came with my new PC to give it a try. I enjoy it a lot. In the game's career mode, there is no pressure to finish a level quickly or efficiently and that's what I love about it. You can ignore the time and leave the hose running for as long as it takes you, and that's all part of the appeal. Bertie expertly summed it up in his review.: "This is not a game about rushing towards an end," he wrote. "This is a game about the sedate pleasures of repetitive work - a slower game about the satisfaction of a job well done. It's relaxing and calming, and that's a powerful quality." But this inevitably got me wondering about the other end of the gameplay spectrum in PowerWash Simulator. Speed and efficiency, rather than leisure. True, you can already play the game's time-limited and water-limited modes, but they weren't as extreme as what I was imagining. I'm talking speedwashing. Was there anyone out there playing like that? Read more  ( 18 min )
    HBO's The Last of Us casts brothers Henry and Sam
    The actors playing brothers Henry and Sam in HBO's adaptation of The Last of Us have been announced. IGN has revealed that Henry will be played by Lamar Johnson, while his younger brother Sam will be played by Keivonn Woodard. Johnson's previous credits include Canadian police drama Rookie Blue and Your Honor with Bryan Cranston. Woodard has no previous acting credits. Along with this news, some upcoming plot elements were also revealed. If you are keen to avoid spoilers, please stop reading here. Read more
    Pokémon Center London timeslot reservations now live
    Reservations to visit London's Pokémon Center pop-up store are now open. The store will be running alongside the Pokémon World Championships, which is being held at ExCeL London from 17th to 21st August. Anyone wishing to visit the store can now reserve themselves a timeslot via the appointment manager. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Midgar feels R.E.A.L. thanks to this new VR mod for Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade
    Flat screen to VR mods are easily the most exciting thing happening in the virtual reality gaming sphere right now and, thanks to a host of talented modders, they just keep on coming! On this week's VR Corner, you can watch me try out Luke Ross' new R.E.A.L. VR mod for Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade and it's an absolute treat for the eyes! Honestly, if you though this game looked beautiful in 2D, just you wait until you see it in glorious 6DoF VR. It'll take your breath away! In the video below, I make my way from the very start of the game, all the way through to the Shinra Reactor boss fight, the ruins of Sector 1, and finally to a meeting with Tifa in the Seventh Heaven bar. Read more  ( 16 min )
    id Software consolidating Steam games to lessen confusion
    id Software is consolidating its games on Steam to improve the shopping experience. The news comes from a blog post on Steam that details how its library of games is being simplified under specific titles from 10th August. "Spanning across multiple decades, id Software's library of work is as vast as it is full of amazing games," reads the post. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Apex Legends - something's got to give
    My fireteam and I - hitherto committed to PUBG but casually on the lookout for something else, so unhappy were we with the lack of communication, infrequent updates, and all-too-common disconnects - had been on the hunt for a new team-based shooter, and Apex Legends scratched an itch that neither Fortnite nor PUBG could reach. Fun, chaotic, and built on fantastically snappy gunplay, Respawn's surprise battle royale hit the floor running, and we fell for it faster than Bangalore drop, shock and locks. Apex Legends' arrival was smooth, too, immediately feeling polished, and it offered a frantic, pacey twist on the battle royale formula. It became our go-to game, not for a few weeks or months, but for years. The wheels started to fall off for us when Apex Legends introduced skill-based ma…  ( 19 min )
  • Open

    Sauropods had soft foot pads to help support their massive weight
    Australian scientists find first biomechanical evidence for a long-suspected idea.  ( 5 min )
    Sonos delays its hotly anticipated Sub Mini after a rough financial quarter
    The Sub Mini was expected any day, but it's been pushed back.  ( 5 min )
    Disney-owned streaming trifecta unveils price hikes, ad-supported Disney+
    That's one way to say you're not necessarily raising prices, Disney+.  ( 6 min )
    Musk wants Twitter to identify employees who calculate spam percentage
    Musk tells judge Twitter isn't producing names of employees he wants to question.  ( 5 min )
    Lawsuits: OnlyFans bribed Instagram to put creators on “terrorist blacklist”
    Thousands of adult entertainers claim they were added to a "blacklist."  ( 7 min )
    Intel tests show its Arc A750 GPU beating an RTX 3060, if only you could buy one
    A750 will be less competitive in older games, but it will all come down to price.  ( 6 min )
    FTC aims to counter the “massive scale” of online data collection
    Rulemaking action already has support, but some want Congress to act first.  ( 6 min )
    Amid backlash from privacy advocates, Meta expands end-to-end encryption trial
    E2EE prevents anyone other than the sender and receiver from reading messages.  ( 5 min )
    2022 Moto Razr gets big price drop, 144 Hz display, flagship SoC
    The new Razr looks a lot like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip.  ( 6 min )
    Did giant impacts start plate tectonics?
    Plate tectonics may have its origins in impacts, based on new data from Australia.  ( 6 min )
    Meta’s flailing Portal repurposed as a wireless portable monitor
    Ahead of a rumored shift to businesses, the video-calling device broadens its appeal.  ( 5 min )
    One of 5G’s biggest features is a security minefield
    There are vulnerabilities in 5G platforms carriers offer to wrangle embedded device data.  ( 6 min )
    Backyard hens’ eggs contain 40 times more lead on average than shop eggs
    Research has implications for urban gardening and food production.  ( 5 min )
    New tragic details of US child who died from tropical bacteria in room spray
    The healthy boy died a week after falling ill with the tricky-to-diagnose infection.  ( 7 min )
  • Open

    Ta ett djupt andetag! Subnautica-studion visar sitt nya spel på Gamescom
    Lutar åt ett strategiskt Subnautica – eller?  ( 6 min )
    Buffé! Det nya Kirby-spelet släpps nästa vecka
    Kirby's Dream Buffet är Switch-exklusivt.  ( 6 min )
    Antydan om att Playstations pc-spel kan komma att kräva PSN-konto
    Sony öppnar ny sajt för pc-satsningen.  ( 6 min )
    Microsoft: Inte lönsamt att göra Call of Duty Xbox-exklusivt
    Tonar ner oron för att Playstation-spelare blir utan CoD.  ( 7 min )
    Antalet Roblox-spelare ökar kraftigt, men fortsätter göra förlust
    Störst är ingen garanti för vinst.  ( 6 min )
    Id Software gör det enklare att köpa Quake, Doom och andra gamlingar på Steam
    Storstädar sitt Steam-bibliotek.  ( 6 min )
    Internet hånar lökig Forspoken-trailer
    "I'm seeing freaking dragons."  ( 6 min )
    Quiz – Vad kan du om änglar och demoner?
    Himmel och helvete. Veckans quiz handlar om både det saliga och det syndiga.  ( 6 min )
    Microsoft: Sony betalar utvecklare för att skippa Game Pass
    Xbox-ägaren avfyrar hård kritik mot värsta konkurrenten.  ( 7 min )
    Square Enix kovänder: The DioField Chronicle har fått en pc-demo
    Och konsolerna har också tillgång till den, som lovat.  ( 6 min )
    Saints Row peppar oss med en videogenomgång inför släppet
    Bekanta er med gängen, karaktärerna och "affärsmöjligheterna" i Santo Ileso.  ( 6 min )
    Fyra nya skådespelare i The Last of Us-serien avslöjade
    Två karaktärer från spelet och två som är unika för serien.  ( 6 min )
    Playstation Plus-katalogen utökas med Yakuza, Trials of Mana och andra titlar
    Men bara för Extra- och Premium-medlemmar.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Asahi Linux May Pursue Writing Apple Silicon GPU Driver In Rust
    When it comes to the Apple M1 and M2 support on Linux, one of the biggest obstacles to suitable daily use for end-users is the current lack of GPU acceleration. Reverse engineering has been happening for the Apple Silicon graphics processor, early experiments being carried out under macOS and Asahi's m1n1 environment, and the next step will be to start writing a Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) kernel driver. To some surprise, the feasibility of writing this DRM kernel GPU driver in the Rust programming language is being explored...  ( 5 min )
    Linux 5.19.1 Released With LTS Kernels Back To 4.19 For The "PBRSB" CPU Issue
    A number of new Linux kernel stable releases are out this week with new mitigations around the latest batch of published CPU security vulnerabilities. Linux 5.19.1, 5.18.17, 5.15.60, 5.10.136, 5.4.210, and 4.19.255 are the new releases out today...  ( 5 min )
    AMD Posts Linux Patches For "LbrExtV2" Zen 4 CPU Feature
    While all of the key Zen 4 CPU functionality appears in place for the mainline Linux kernel, AMD engineers continue working to enable other new Zen 4 features for use under Linux. The newest patches out of AMD this morning are for LbrExtV2...  ( 5 min )
    Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS Released
    Following a one week delay due to a last minute blocker bug being discovered, Canonical today has shipped Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS as the first point release to this current long-term support series...  ( 4 min )
    Loongson Adds LoongArch Support To LibreOffice
    Following GCC 12 introducing LoongArch support earlier this year, Linux 5.19 adding the initial LoongArch port, and Glibc 2.36 adding LoongArch, LibreOffice is now the latest high-profile open-source project adding support for this Chinese processor ISA that started out derived from MIPS64...  ( 5 min )
    GNOME Mutter & Shell 43 Beta Bring Several Very Exciting Changes
    GNOME's Shell and Mutter components have released their beta versions for this GNOME 43 milestone. Particularly on the Mutter side are some very exciting changes from improvements to direct scan-out, high resolution scroll wheel support being completed and merged, various Wayland improvements, and more performance optimizations...  ( 5 min )
    Linux 6.0 Fixes Touchpad & Keyboard Issues After Suspend For Many TUXEDO Laptops
    A number of TUXEDO Computers' Linux laptops and Clevo laptops that have had keyboard and/or touchpad issues after system suspend cycles should be properly working now with Linux 6.0...  ( 5 min )
    X.Org Protocols 2022.2 Released With XWAYLAND Extension, DRI3 v1.3
    Xorgproto 2022.2 has been released as the newest version of this collection of X.Org/X11 protocols. Most notable with this rare xorgproto update is the introduction of a new extension, XWAYLAND...  ( 5 min )
    Mesa 22.2-rc2 Released With Many Fixes - Heavy On Zink
    Following last week's branching and feature freeze along with the Mesa 22.2-rc1 release, released on Wednesday evening was Mesa 22.2-rc2 as the first week's worth of bug fixing...  ( 4 min )
  • Open

    Quiz: Elektrifierande quiz om nätaggregat – spänning utlovas
    "Watt kan du ohm nätaggregat?" var det effektfulla namnet på vårat förra quiz på samma ämne. Den här veckan är vi laddade och presenterar uppföljaren.  ( 5 min )
    Intels Arc A750 besegrar Geforce RTX 3060 i 50 testade spel
    I väntan på lanseringen av Arc A750 presenterar Intel prestandasiffror från en hel hög spel, som pekar på att kortet i bästa fall slår Nvidias populära mellanklassmodell.  ( 7 min )
    Intel besegrar Geforce RTX 3060 i 50 testade spel
    I väntan på lanseringen av Arc A750 presenterar Intel prestandasiffror från en hel hög spel, som pekar på att kortet i bästa fall slår Nvidias populära mellanklassmodell.  ( 7 min )
    Ett välsvarvat ekosystem finpoleras med Samsungs uppdaterade Galaxy-produkter
    Vid sidan av Galaxy Z Flip4 och Galaxy Z Fold4 släpper Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro samt klockduon Galaxy Watch5 och Watch5 Pro. Vi sammanfattar nyheterna.  ( 9 min )
    CHIPS and Science Act ska locka kretstillverkning till USA
    Med 76 miljarder USD i investering från USA ska den nya akten övertyga företag att producera halvledare i landet.  ( 6 min )
    Nothing Phone 1 en pina att reparera
    Bakom den exponerande glasbaksidan finns en fasad av plast, LED och dolda skruvar, som gör Phone 1 till en mycket svårarbetad telefon.  ( 6 min )
    Nästa Grand Theft Auto ska sätta ny standard för spelbranschen
    Många väntar med spänning på vad Rockstar kokar ihop som efterträdare till seglivade GTA V. Företaget förklarar att ambitionsnivån är skyhög.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    NBA 2K23 The Jordan Challenge returns - here's what to expect.
    The Jordan Challenge is coming with NBA 2K23, making its long awaited return after 12 years away from the franchise. In this mode you’ll be able to take on 15 unique experiences, each set in one of Michael Jordan’s milestone moments in their career. Alongside each of the challenges, you’ll be able to watch a video interview with a luminary integral to each real life moment, including – but not limited to – 1998 opponent Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Denis Rodman, and head coach Phil Jackson. One of the coolest aspects of the Jordan Challenge is the attention to year-specific detail. The games have filters that reflect the recording / T.V quality of the time, and you can see era-specific jerseys, courts, and even sponsors during each mission. As such, it’s about as close to an authentic retelling of Michael Jordan’s career as you could hope for. Read more  ( 16 min )
    THQ Nordic 2022 Digital Showcase time and date, and how to watch
    Just when you thought it was safe to take yourself away from your monitor, the games industry throws out one more showcase for you to drool over. Not content with Summer Games Fest and all those E3 stand-ins, THQ Nordic is setting up its own showcase that'll feature at least 14 games. Dubbed THQ Nordic's digital showcase 2022, the show promises to give us updates on a slew of announced and unannounced titles from the publisher. All the information you need to watch this late-summer showcase can be found below. Maybe once this one is wrapped up, we'll be safe. Until PAX East. And Gamescom. And the Game Awards. Read more  ( 15 min )
    HBO's The Last of Us will star Lamar Johnson and Keivonn Woodard
    It's been a short while since we've heard anything new about HBO's TV take on Naughty Dog's The Last of Us. Now, in an exclusive report with IGN, the cast for the show has been revealed, and a little more about the narrative has been shared. That said, please be aware that there may be some minor spoilers to follow for HBO's The Last of Us. It has been revealed that Lamar Johnson will be taking on the role of Henry, with Keivonn Woodard playing his brother, Sam. The brothers are described in the press release as being in Kansas City, hiding from a revolutionary movement seeking vengeance. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Call of Duty Black Ops 4's scrapped campaign has leaked online
    Years after its release, leaked details and assets for the scrapped campaign in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 have appeared online. Posted on Reddit by user PurpleToaster20, over 400 images of documentation, early builds, and storyboards are available to view. This fairly comprehensive overview of what got scrapped is open for anyone and everyone to read. In addition, a full on video will be posted August 18 going through these assets and the info, set to run for roughly 30 minutes. According to the leaker, this vast collection of information was gathered from a variety of sources. To break down some of the juicy details put out in the open, we know from these leaks that the scrapped 2017 campaign mode was intended to be a 2v2 affair. Titled 'career', you and a partner would race to the finish of a 15-20 minute mission, taking on AI enemies that block your path along the way. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Lego is a video game force to be reckoned with – but I miss its early, experimental gaming age
    This week, Lego turns 90 years old – an incredible milestone for a little toy company that, at several points in its life, was on the verge of going under. It’s more impressive still that Lego reaches this milestone while one of the biggest toy brands on the planet, recognizable to children everywhere, and all achieved while remaining a private company. Lego has always had an interesting relationship with video games. On one hand, the company naturally sees video games as competition: when Lego’s financial results declined for the first time in 13 years (half a decade ago), one market factor the company pointed the finger at was kids playing more video games. At the same time, however, gaming has become an inexctricable part of Lego’s business. We now get a high-quality Lego-based video game at least every couple of years – and quite often more frequently than that. These are usually based on Lego’s licensed properties – so gaming adventures that retell the stories of comic book, or Star Wars, or Harry Potter and its kin – just with the tale spun in a blocky, comedic form. A lot is owed to the Lego games as designed by British developer Traveler’s Tales, in fact: much of the presentation of the hugely successful Lego movies has its genesis in these gaming experiences. Read more  ( 18 min )
    PS Plus August Extra and Premium lineup revealed, and it’s packed with Yakuza
    The next batch of games being added to PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium has been revealed by Sony. For owners of PS Plus Extra, you'll be able to pick up three different Yakuza titles, which is just the beginning for Yakuza fans or those keen to try out the series for the first time. Ultimately, the full Yakuza series is going to be coming to PS Plus before the end of 2022. So, if you've never tried the games out, now's the time to start. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Untitled
    No content preview  ( 2 min )
  • Open

    How to Find Your MAC address in Ubuntu and Other Linux Distros
    A quick tutorial about finding the MAC address of various networking interfaces including Bluetooth in Linux. Both command line and GUI methods have been discussed.  ( 24 min )

  • Open

    Microsoft claims Sony pays developers "blocking rights" to keep games off Xbox Game Pass
    In a lengthy document submitted to the Brazilian government as part of its investigation into Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft has claimed Sony pays developers "blocking rights" to prevent games from appearing on Xbox Game Pass. The accusation appears in a 27-page rebuttal of Sony's recent objections to Microsoft's Activision Blizzard buyout, made to Brazil's Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) as part of its investigation. Much of Sony's argument had focused on Call of Duty - which it claimed had "no rival" and was "so popular that it influences users' choice of console" - with the PlayStation maker suggesting, among other things, that the inclusion of Call of Duty on Microsoft's Game Pass service would hamper its ability to compete. Microsoft's response is as wide-ranging as Sony's initial objections, touching on everything from the fact it has previously managed to grow Game Pass without Activision Blizzard's titles - suggesting Call of Duty mightn't be quite as "essential" as Sony claims - to a reiteration of its assurances that it won't be making Call of Duty an Xbox console exclusive. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Norwood Suite dev's surreal dice-chucker Betrayal At Club Low out in September
    Betrayal At Club Low - the latest jazz-infused odyssey from The Norwood Suite developer Cosmo D - finally has a release date, and will be swinging open its murderous doors for some woozily surreal adventure on 9th September. Folding into the broader narrative of Cosmo D's interconnected Off-Peak City games (so far consisting of 2015's Off-Peak, 2017's The Norwood Suite, and its 2020 follow-up Tales from Off-Peak City Vol. 1), Betrayal At Club Low sees players going undercover to attempt a rescue mission of sorts by infiltrating a "deceptively dangerous" nightclub/former coffin factory/"haven for wild-limbed dancing, mind-altering music and shady characters". While previous games in the series were largely focussed on relaxed roaming and light puzzling as players soaked up their deliciously off-kilter sensibilities, Betrayal at Club Low does things a little differently, drawing inspiration from "short, punchy, independent zine RPGs" in order to evoke the feel of a one-off tabletop session. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Marvel's Spider-Man PC: why we aren't posting our review today
    The embargo for the highly anticipated Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered lifted today and you may be wondering where the Digital Foundry coverage is - we received the game a while back along with most other outlets. Well, the truth is that developer Nixxes is still hard at work with the game, patches are still incoming (the latest arriving a few hours ago) and we're intent on delivering coverage that accurately reflects the state of the game you'll be playing on day oneas best as we can manage. Right now, the port is looking exceptionally impressive in many regards but to briefly sum up, it plays brilliant on higher-end PCs, it also works very nicely on Steam Deck, but we've experienced some problems with low to mid-range GPUs. In fact, the very latest update to the game seeks to address those very issues - with some success. Taking a more global look at the conversion though, there's much to commend Nixxes' efforts. The game supports all aspects ratios we could test, from the 16:9 of most modern screens to the 21:9 and 32:9 ultra-wide variants, the 16:10 of Steam Deck and even 4:3 for those interested in an old-school CRT experience. On top of this, there's adjustable field of view support too. Per other Nixxes titles, there's also fullscreen and exclusive fullscreen support - and it is properly implemented with resolutions and refresh rates independent of what the desktop is configured to. It sounds mundane, but these things matter. Of course, unlocked frame-rates are supported, but for those with less capable PCs, the half refresh rate v-sync mode actually works properly with consistent frame-pacing (not on Steam Deck though - use the system level option for that) while dynamic resolution scaling is also implemented, with a configurable frame-rate target. Targeting a locked, consistent 30fps or 60fps experience is made that much easier. Read more  ( 19 min )
    Long-in-the works Half-Life 2 VR mod gets public beta next month
    A fan-made Half-Life 2 VR mod nearly eight years in the making will finally be getting a public release next month in the form of an open beta. Eurogamer first reported on the Source VR Mod Team's Half-Life 2: VR mod in 2017, but that version was actually an extension of an earlier mod released for Razer Hydra back in 2013. Some time after the new version's announcement, the project appeared to stall - it entered "its own kind of development hell and was all but abandoned", according to the team's website - but it re-emerged in 2021 and is slowly approaching the finish line. Half-Life 2: VR - one of several attempts to bring Valve's seminal shooter sequel to virtual reality headsets - promises a range of features, including room scale VR, the ability to manipulate items and weapons directly with your hands, full locomotion, a weapon selection menu inspired by Valve's Half-Life: Alyx, and tweaked vehicle rides intended to help reduce motion sickness. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Microsoft says Elden Ring, GTA5 Xbox cloud listings due to "bug"
    Xbox cloud streaming options advertised for Elden Ring and Grand Theft Auto 5 were a "bug", Microsoft has told Eurogamer. Last night, fans spotted games such as Soul Hackers 2, GTA5 and Elden Ring were listed with an option to play via cloud streaming. Some speculated this was being rolled out now, in advance of a Gamescom announcement later this month. But Microsoft has now said that the games' listings - which also flagged them as being part of Xbox Game Pass - were bugged, and that the issue has now been fixed. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Sony announces August PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium games
    PlayStation has announced the games coming to its PS Plus subscription service on 16th August. Last month the company set out a plan to add eight Yakuza games to the service this year - that begins this month with Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami, and Yakuza Kiwami 2 on PS Plus for Premium and Extra subscribers. That's on top of Yakuza: Like A Dragon that's already been added to Essential. Also coming for Premium and Extra subscribers are Dead by Daylight, Bugsnax, and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands. Read more  ( 15 min )
    The Secret of Monkey Island saw 25% of its dialogue cut before release
    Technological constraints meant that the original Monkey Island game saw 25 percent of its dialogue text cut before it was released. Talking to Sony Santa Monica's Alanah Pearce, writer Tim Schafer revealed that The Secret of Monkey Island was originally too long and had to get some heavy editing. "We were writing on Monkey Island, and we were told 'you guys, we can't go on six floppies. We have to go on five. We have too much text,'" Schafer recalled before remarking how strange that sort of thing is to imagine now. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Farthest Frontier understands the best moments of city-builders are the beginnings
    To me, the best moments of a city-building game are always the beginnings, when there's nothing but potential ahead of you. Things are manageable, the world is unspoiled, the pace is slow. To me, that's idyllic. And if ever a game understood that, it's Farthest Frontier. It's a game about a group of working class people fed up with being shat on by the rich, in the big city where they live, so they strike out for the literal farthest frontier to make it on their own. It's that fantasy. The era is the birth of the Industrial Revolution, maybe - it's not explicitly clear. And that's how it begins: a dozen people and a caravan and an endless wilderness around them to tame. What I love about what comes next is how unhurriedly it happens, and how small-scale it continues to be. Farthest Frontier is not about going from dozens to thousands, from village to sprawling metropolis, and that zooming out you then feel as the person in charge. It's about staying small and staying close to the people you're caring for. It's probably wrong to call it a city-builder at all but rather a town-builder, because even many hours in, from what I've read, settlements are still only a few hundred people big (apparently the game struggles performance-wise past that, but it is Early Access). Read more  ( 16 min )
    Splatoon 3 gets three-way fights and a demo later this month
    Splatoon 3 just got a serious deep dive thanks to this afternoon's Nintendo Direct, revealing new levels, new weapons and an all-new approach to Splatfests that will introduce three-way fights into the series for the first time. Three-way fights come as part of the returning Splatfests, with matches during the special timed events being split into two halves, with the first part a traditional 4v4 face-off while the second sees a 4v2v2 fight for territory. There'll be a chance to sample this particular new flavour of Splatoon during a Splatfest World Premiere that's taking place on 27th August - effectively a free demo where players can sample Splatoon 3 for a limited period, choosing to fight for rock, paper or scissors (it's worth noting that the demo will be playable from 25th August , giving a small window for practice before the Splatfest World Premiere itself). Read more  ( 16 min )
    A free demo for The DioField Chronicle is out now
    A free demo is now available for the next big Square Enix strategy game: The DioField Chronicle. First announced at the PlayStation State of Play in March, the game is set for release on 22nd September across consoles and PC. The demo is likewise available on all platforms and includes the game's first chapter, with all progress transferring to the main game once purchased. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Cult of the Lamb review - a genre mash-up with a lot of ideas
    Hello! I'm a cult leader these days. Let me tell you what I've just been doing. I woke early and cooked some food that gave everyone diarrhea. Then I gave a quick sermon to cheer everyone up. I planted some seeds so I could make some more food that gives everyone diarrhea, disappeared for a bit to play a dice game, donated some mushrooms to an old pal in the woods, and caught up on my fishing before heading over to the Gold Guy. I bought some Tarot cards that were going cheap, one of which promises a lovely health boost whenever it gets dealt. I went on a mission and murdered a lot of nasty things in the woods, harvesting resources and whatnot as I went. I killed a boss, working my way up through a sort of watery forest to the next mega boss. Back to the camp after that to clean up all that diarrhea, build a few beds because my followers are sulking, water and fertilise some seeds, knock up a scarecrow so birds don't eat my seeds, make myself a nice new fleece with lovely perks and then catch the rising sun and do it all over again. I'm tempted, you know, to take up smelting. Cult of the Lamb is a management game and an action roguelite in which you play an evil sheep. It's astonishingly systems-heavy. You can build dozens of structures to look after your flock, and your flock can grumble and sicken and die and preach behind your back in dozens of ways. You're always after new cult members, each with their own quirks, and you're always after the resources to keep everyone happy, because happy cultists in turn give you the resources to make them even happier - and grow more powerful when you set out on action roguelite runs, working your way through minor bosses to middle-management bosses and then hopefully whoever's at the top. Read more  ( 19 min )
    Xbox announces Gamescom 2022 line-up
    Microsoft has detailed the line-up of Xbox titles it's bringing to Gamescom in a couple of weeks, including Obsidian exclusive Pentiment, Age of Empires 4, Flight Sim and Grounded. As a reminder, Microsoft is one of the few companies committed to Gamescom this year - and the only platform holder. Both Sony and Nintendo are sitting out the show's big in-person return, alongside Activision Blizzard and Take-Two. Ubisoft, Bandai Namco and Embracer are among those also in attendance, though Assassin's Creed fans are expecting all of Ubisoft's big reveals to actually take place online, via a special event due in September. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Pokémon Go's ticketed global summer finale detailed
    The big summer finale to Pokémon Go's season of Go Fest events has been detailed in full. Due to take place on Saturday 27th August, this full-day event will cap off the game's introduction of Ultra Beasts and (hopefully) see its hunky Professor Willow return after being left dramatically MIA. The event has plenty for those playing free, or extras for those with a ticket. These premium bits are also included as part of the earlier Global Go Fest weekend back in June - so if you played that, you're covered. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Call of Duty Black Ops 4 cut campaign detailed in huge cache of documents
    An enormous cache of cut content from Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has been posted online, detailing developer Treyarch's early plans for a campaign mode. Gameplay details, screenshots and design documentation are all included in a post on the infamous GamingLeaksAndRumours reddit by user Purpletoaster20, who states that it is the culmination of "months of research and discussion" with those who knew about the mode before it was ditched. The post also comes ahead of a 30-minute video on the mode, which the user says they intend to post online next week. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Pokémon: The Arceus Chronicles anime to debut at Pokémon World Championships
    The Pokémon anime special The Arceus Chronicles is set to receive its English language debut at the Pokémon World Championships in London on 19th August. Following on from the success of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, the anime sees Ash and co defeating the remnants of Team Galactic after receiving a message from the Mythical Pokémon Arceus. It also features a topless Brock, if that's your thing. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Here's what's coming to Temtem version 1.0
    A new trailer has been released for monster catcher-battler Temtem that shows off new content coming in its Version 1.0 launch. That's set for 6th September across Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC (via Steam). The big new addition is Tamer's Paradise, a brand new island coming to the game's Airborne Archipelago. Check it out below. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Overwatch loot boxes will be withdrawn from sale at the end of the month
    Blizzard has announced an end date for the sale of Overwatch loot boxes - after one final in-game loot box event to sell lots of them beforehand. The option to buy loot boxes will be removed from Overwatch at the end of the game's current Anniversary Remix event, which wraps up on 30th August. In a blog post on the event, Blizzard noted that its loot boxes have a chance to contain rare items from previous Anniversary and seasonal events, and told fans not to "wait too long to snag those skins you've been eyeing for the past year". Read more  ( 15 min )
    First footage of Resident Evil's Wesker in Dead by Daylight public test
    The next chapter coming to Dead by Daylight, Project W, is a second dose of Resident Evil that adds Wesker as a new Killer. Yesterday he was added to the Public Test Build of the game, giving us a first look at his arsenal of abilities. It seems Behaviour hasn't hit a bum note with this one. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Someone should make a game about: pop band fight clubs
    Hello! Welcome back to a stray installment of our occasional series, Someone Should Make a Game About. This week Alexis looks at the glory days of pop. “Imagine [Jedward] coming up against All the Things She Said - it’s like David vs. Goliath if David lost,” -- Cian Maher In the third year of the pandemic, I hit upon, quite arguably, the greatest idea I’ve had in my life: a fantasy fighting league made up of your favorite 90s/00s pop bands. I’m not talking about a DDR-style or rhythm game that involves matching beats – I’m talking about a Blaseball-style league where you can draft t.A.t.U. to beat the living heck out of prime-era PJ and Duncan with power combos-based music video choreography. No, really, think about it, then think about it some more. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Firm Estimates Intel's GPU Unit Losses at $3.5 Billion, Suggests Sell Off
    Jon Peddie Research estimates Intel's GPU endeavors have resulting in $3.5 billion in losses and suggests Intel might want to sell it off after multiple failures.  ( 62 min )
    Best Gaming Keyboards for 2022: Mechanical, TKL, and More
    These are the best gaming keyboards that combine responsiveness, features, and style.  ( 82 min )
    Spider-Man Remastered Tested: How Does it Run on Your GPU?
    We've tested the Spider-Man Remastered PC port on a group of AMD and Nvidia GPUs to see how it runs, and have also provided an in-depth analysis of the best settings for smooth frame rates.  ( 74 min )
    Gigabyte X670 Motherboards Feature Screwless and Latchless M.2, PCIe Slots
    Gigabyte has revealed some new quality-of-life updates for its motherboards, featuring a latchless PCIe slot and a screwless M.2 slot.  ( 59 min )
    AMD Continues PC and Server Market Share Gains Amid Slumping Market
    AMD makes big gains in desktop, mobile and server CPU markets.  ( 64 min )
    MSI Introduces World's First ATX 3.0 PSU, Ready for 2,600W Power Spikes
    MSI releases the world's first PSU, that is compatible with Intel's new ATX 3.0 power supply standard. The new standard focuses on improving power-delivery and reliability, and features 600W power connectors for video cards.  ( 59 min )
    Consumer DRAM Prices Set to Drop 18% in Q3 — TrendForce
    TrendForce expects consumer DRAM prices to drop 13% – 18% in Q3, then collapse further in Q4.  ( 60 min )
    Solidigm Introduces Industry-First PLC NAND for Higher Storage Densities
    SK hynix-owned Solidigm took to the Flash memory Summit 2022 to showcase its working prototype SSD based on Penta Level Cell (PLC) NAND, which promises to bring density increases to a market thirsty for storage.  ( 60 min )
    LattePanda Reveals 3 Delta SBC With Intel and Arduino
    Chinese manufacturer LattePanda has taken the covers off its latest SBC, the 3 Delta.  ( 59 min )
    GPU Shipments May Drop by 50%, Nvidia Braces for Long Winter
    Intel and Nvidia prepare for big revenue drops as consumer demand falls; AMD and Apple are doing fine.  ( 59 min )
    Intel's Flagship Core i9-12900KF Now Only $499: Real Deals
    You can currently get your hands on Intel's flagship processor, the Core i9-12900KF, for only $499 on eBay saving almost $50 off its usual price.  ( 66 min )
    All AMD Zen CPUs Vulnerable, Might Need to Disable SMT
    Newly discovered side-channel attack recovers 4096-bit RSA key on AMD's Zen-based CPUs.  ( 59 min )
    Samsung Unveils 128TB PCIe SSD to Tackle Petabyte-Scale Storage
    The 128TB SSD uses QLC NAND and a PCIe interface.  ( 59 min )
    be quiet! Pure Loop 2 FX 360mm Review: Colorfully Cool
    be quiet!'s Pure Loop 2 FX brings lots of RGB and a redesigned pump that helps the 360 model perform well in our testing with Intel's Alder Lake Core i9 CPU.  ( 68 min )
    AMD's Ryzen 7000 'Raphael' Overclocking Settings Listed, Settings for 3 GHz Infinity Fabric
    AMD's next-generation AM5 CPUs to offer 'high bandwidth' and 'low latency' modes.  ( 59 min )
    Nvidia's RTX 4070 Will Allegedly Boost to 2.8 GHz
    2.8 GHz is now the expected frequency ceiling for Nvidia's upcoming GeForce RTX 4070 mid-range GPU. With a base clock estimation of 2310MHz.  ( 59 min )
    SSDs Create More Carbon Emissions Than HDDs: Report
    A recent study highlights that the choice between HDD and SSD in terms of carbon footprint isn't as clear-cut as you might think. But the complexity of the calculation means we should be wary.  ( 61 min )
    Intel 'Sunny Cove' SGX Vulnerability Discovered
    Intel's Ice Lake, Rocket Lake, and Gemini Lake CPUs are vulnerable to ÆPIC Leak vulnerability.  ( 59 min )
    Chinese Biren's New GPUs Have 77 Billion Transistors, 2 PFLOPS of AI Performance
    Biren's first GPUs can challenge Nvidia's A100 GPU in select workloads, at least on paper.  ( 59 min )
    Tackle 3D modeling and video editing with NVIDIA Studio laptops
    Stylish, durable NVIDIA Studio laptops featuring 4k displays and NVIDIA RTX GPUs are ideal for students and creatives with processing-intensive workflows  ( 60 min )
  • Open

    The cheapest ultra-wide on Amazon is this 25-in 2560x1080 model for £110
    How much gaming monitor can you get for £100? Not much, it turns out - but I did spot something unexpected for £10 more: a genuine ultra-wide monitor. Now, it's not a stunner as far as looks go, and it's not got the latest specs either. But what it has got is an expansive 25-inch span, a 2560x1080 resolution and a blistering refresh rate of... 75Hz. OK, so it's far from the best gaming monitor on the planet, but getting an IPS monitor of this size is honestly not bad going - especially as it's been reduced from a UK RRP of £170. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Pick up this 1TB NVMe SSD for £58.84
    Intel's SSD 670p Series is one of the cheapest ways to add high-speed NVMe storage to your system, and now a 1TB drive has been reduced to just £59 in the UK. That's a big price drop on a drive that normally sells for £90, and is nearly as cheap as the £54 that this drive cost during the last Amazon Prime Day. Read more  ( 16 min )
    The DioField Chronicle does have a PC demo after all, and you can play it right now
    I was a bit sad when Square Enix announced last month that PC players would be missing out on the first demo for their upcoming strategy game The DioField Chronicle, but happily the RPG giant has reconsidered their tactical options and released it on Steam after all. The move coincides with pre-orders also going live, but the good news is that your save data, progress and character levels from the demo will all transfer over to the final game should you decide to take the plunge in full when the game comes out on September 22nd. Huzzah. Read more  ( 17 min )
    What's better: nude mods, or going into guts and meat?
    Last time, you decided that cameras which actually take pictures are better than running into a wall so fast you hurt yourself. Immersive sims shudder in revulsion from this outcome (but sadly don't take damage from their vibration). Cameras won by only eight votes, so you'd better join in if you feel strongly about this week's face-off. And this one might involve taking a face... off. What's better: nude mods, or going into guts and meat? Read more  ( 17 min )
    Why Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered PC devs want players to “feel like we're honouring the platform”
    Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is the latest ex-PlayStation exclusive to rock up on PC, following a collaborative effort between original developers Insomniac Games and porting specialists Nixxes. It’s also a skyscape-swinging, baddie-decking good time, so says Alice Bee’s review, and one that comes with plenty of special features just for the Windows version. I’ll be posting a more performance-and-hardware-focused guide to it later this week, but in the meantime I called up Jurjen Katsman, founder and senior director of development at Nixxes, and Mike Fitzgerald, core technology director at Insomniac, for a chat about how Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered makes the jump to PC. Read more  ( 23 min )
    Spider-Man Remastered runs great on Steam Deck, with very few caveats
    When Sony revealed that Spider-Man Remastered was headed to PC earlier this year, I became fixated with the idea that the game would potentially work on the Steam Deck. I mean, it worked on a base PS4, right? By my understanding the Steam Deck is basically just a PS4 with a screen slapped on it, so surely portable Spider-Manning wasn't an unrealistic thing to expect? After spending a few days testing out the game on the Deck I'm thrilled to confirm that Spider-Man Remastered plays great on Valve's handheld with only a few very minor caveats. Hooray! I can finally punch a Vulture in my back garden without getting shouted at by local bird protection services. What a time to be alive. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered review: a fun hero epic that takes the wall-crawler to new heights
    I've played a lot of Spider-Man games. To this day I nurture the belief that all tutorials should be narrated by Bruce Campbell. I even played Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, which had four different web-dudes and later inspired the Spider-Verse storyline in the comics. Point is, I'm standing on pretty solid ground to judge Spider-Man games. Marvel's Spider-Man, originally released onto Sonyboxes in 2018, is finally coming to PC in a Remastered form, and let me tell you: it is a great Spidey game. You know Spider-Man. He's a dude named Peter Parker who was bitten by a radioactive spider and can now climb up walls and punch criminals really well. Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered lets you roleplay being Spidey against the backdrop of a big, living New York city. It is, if you'll excuse the pun, amazing. Now, is it the best Spidey game? Nah. I reckon that's its spin-off/sequel Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, but that's not on PC yet. This means Marvel's Spider-Man gets to be the best wall-crawler game on PC for another few months, which isn't a bad consolation prize. Read more  ( 20 min )
    Cult Of The Lamb review: an adorably twisted cult management game
    A bright sun heralds the start of day 37 for CultPaperShotgun. Katharine wakes up and immediately sets to work cleaning up the mountains of poop and vomit puddles left over from the previous night's revelries. As she works, she spies her good friend Alice B harvesting cauliflowers from the cult's garden, trying to keep as far as possible away from the (now slightly rotting) corpse of Graham that lays nearby. A cluster of other followers are busy dancing around a shrine in the centre of the village, but they all stop to witness a fight between the two oldest members of the cult - Alice0 and Liam. Ritual combat of the elderly is a staple of CultPaperShotgun, and as Alice0 delivers the final blow to an ailing Liam, cries of euphoria reverberate about the camp as his spirit (and chunks of flesh) are donated to the cause. Where am I in all this, you ask? I, the Lamb, the glorious leader of our cult, the holy vessel of Death itself, and the sworn enemy of the Bishops of the Old Faith that are destined soon to die by my blade? I'm kicking back at a nearby camp, enjoying a spot of fishing and a friendly game of Knucklebones. This, friends, is Cult Of The Lamb. And it is excellent. Read more  ( 25 min )
    Swery has written a book and its title is peak Swery
    They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but when the book in question has been written by Deadly Premonition creator Hidetaka "Swery" Suehiro and is entitled "Dear Ambivalence: The Mustachioed One, The Witches, And The Suspended Body", you can be absolutely sure I'll be adding it to my enormous 'to be read' pile as soon as I've finished typing. First published in Japan last year, Swery took to Twitter yesterday to announce its English translation by Dan Luffey is now available digitally. You might want to sit down for the synopsis, though. It sounds wild. Read more  ( 17 min )
    People hated Forspoken's dialogue so much that it made 'Joss Whedon' trend on Twitter
    Some of the early trailers for Forspoken, a Squeenix action-adventure/RPG epic coming in January, suggested portentious world-saving stuff. This is a different vibe to a clip shared on Forspoken's offical Twitter this week, which featured main character Frey Holland doing a "Yup, that's me!" kind of elevator pitch for the game. A lot of people on the birdsite took an instant, vehement dislike to Frey's dialogue, and were just as instantly sure who to blame for the peachy keen quiplashing, even if by proxy. Yes, Joss Whedon strikes again. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Lost In Play review: a gorgeous point and click puzzler
    You know when a game instantly charms the socks off you the moment you first clap eyes on it? Point and click puzzler Lost In Play is one of those games for me. Its vibrant cartoon visuals immediately caught my attention when I first sampled its Steam Next Fest demo earlier in the year, and I'm happy to report that the full game, out today, is just as captivating as it was back then. It tells the tale of Toto and Gal, a pair of rambunctious siblings who end up far from home after getting lost inside a fantasy world of their own imagining. If they don't find a way back before nightfall, though, they'll be stuck there forever. A classic kids adventure story, in other words, but one that really relishes in its own sense of playfulness. Over the course of their four-odd hour adventure, they'll meet monster fighting frogs in a dark forest, board game-playing seagulls on the high seas, orc mechanics in a vast desert and even a heavy-metal loving sheep on a floating island in the sky as they make their way home to their messy childhood bedroom. It all makes for some memorable puzzling backdrops, but be warned: if you're planning to play this with little ones, then you'll definitely need a puzzle savvy adult in the mix, as some of its brainteasers aren't quite as child-friendly as you might expect. Read more  ( 20 min )
    Return to Off-Peak City with Betrayal At Club Low in September
    We'll soon return to the weird and wonderful world of Cosmo D's Off-Peak City, with the next game in the series today announcing a shiny release date of September 9th. Betrayal At Club Low is the name, and an RPG infiltrating a former coffin factory-turned-nightclub is its game. This time, Cosmo D says he's inspired by one-shot indie RPGs as we roll dice, bake pizzas, and try to help an undercover agent escape. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Farthest Frontiers, a Banished-style survival citybuilder, is out in early access
    There are many different kinds of townbuilders these days, but two of the most popular are "it's a bit like Settlers," and "it looks a bit like Settlers as a ruse but really it's about everyone dying of cholera." Farthest Frontier is the latter: a city management game from the makers of Grim Dawn where its picturesque exterior gives way to an interier that's reminiscent of Banished. As of today, Farthest Frontier is now in early access. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    PlayStation Plus’ highest tier slams to an apparent halt on classic games
    After service's June revision, we review how poorly its "classic" library is going.  ( 7 min )
    Amazon begins large-scale rollout of palm print-based payments
    The technology has drawn scrutiny from privacy activists and politicians.  ( 5 min )
    Were bones of Waterloo soldiers sold as fertilizer? It’s not yet case closed
    Visitor accounts, artwork describe exact locations of three mass graves  ( 5 min )
    FCC cancels Starlink’s $886 million grant from Ajit Pai’s mismanaged auction
    FCC: "Nascent" Starlink tech has capacity limits, may not deliver required speed.  ( 6 min )
    It’s not just social media: Cable news has bigger effect on polarization
    When it comes to echo chambers, TV trumps online.  ( 7 min )
    Google Fiber was stalled for years but now says it’ll expand to 5 new states
    ISP's history suggests you can expect only limited availability in each area.  ( 6 min )
    LG’s 97-inch vibrating OLED TV claims to offer 5.1 audio without speakers
    LG Display says new OLED panel is brighter and more euphonious than rivals.  ( 5 min )
    Putting together the Webb telescope’s mid-infrared eyes
    The Mid-Infrared Instrument needs to be at 7 Kelvin to work.  ( 6 min )
    Today’s best deals: Google Pixel 6 Pro, Xbox Series S, and more
    Dealmaster also has Wacom tablets, the Apple Pencil, the Surface Pro 8, and the iPad Mini.  ( 9 min )
    Microsoft open-sources its cute 3D emoji, albeit without Clippy
    Designs will be useful for incorporating emoji into apps, art projects, and more.  ( 5 min )
    Elon Musk cashes in $6.9 billion of Tesla stock, just in case
    Musk has now sold $15.4 billion worth of TSLA shares since agreeing to buy Twitter.  ( 5 min )
    Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 adds battery life, screen strength, and temperature sensor
    You lose the rotation bezel, but you gain somewhat confusing temp monitoring.  ( 5 min )
    You can finally play Sony’s Spider-Man on PC—but it’s not all good news (yet)
    Good news for ultrawide screens, ray tracing, and Steam Deck. Bad news for lesser PCs.  ( 7 min )
    The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is official, brings Android 12L’s new taskbar
    Samsung's foldable lineup gets new chips but otherwise doesn't change much.  ( 6 min )
    SpaceX breathes fire in South Texas for the first time in 2022
    These were the first static fire tests at Starbase in 2022.  ( 6 min )
    Man who built ISP instead of paying Comcast $50K expands to hundreds of homes
    Jared Mauch gets $2.6 million from gov't to expand fiber ISP in rural Michigan.  ( 6 min )
    Everything you need to know about the monkeypox health emergency
    Global cases have topped 30,000, and the US is scrambling to vaccinate thousands.  ( 5 min )
    Phishers who breached Twilio and fooled Cloudflare could easily get you, too
    Unusually resourced threat actor has targeted multiple companies in recent days.  ( 6 min )
    These researchers watched dead fish rot for 70 days—for science
    Yes, there were probes—including an anal probe.  ( 5 min )
    New Google site begs Apple for mercy in messaging war
    Google is tired of losing so badly to iMessage, so it wants Apple to adopt RCS.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    As Black Hat kicks off, the US government is getting the message on hiring security talent
    Katie Moussouris tells it like it is Black Hat  With the world's largest collection of security folk gathering in Las Vegas for Black hat there are encouraging signs that the US government might actually be getting smarter about hiring.…  ( 4 min )
    Facebook hands over chats to cops in post-Roe abortion case
    'If your business model depends on more aggressive surveillance, maybe you need a new business model' Private Facebook chats between a Nebraska mother and her daughter has been used by law enforcement to build a criminal case against the teen for getting a now-illegal abortion in her home state.…  ( 5 min )
    Maui ransomware linked to North Korean group Andariel
    Attack origins point to April 2021 first strike on Japanese target The Maui ransomware that has been used against US healthcare operations has been linked to Andariel, a North Korean state-sponsored threat with links to the notorious Lazarus Group.…  ( 5 min )
    The silicon goldrush is coming, but chip demand is evaporating
    Leave it to the economy to throw another wrench into the semiconductor supply chain In the US, chipmakers and suppliers are scrambling to find a place in line for the more than $52 billion in subsidies and tax breaks up for grabs but that surge in semiconductor demand appears to be faltering.…  ( 6 min )
    Microwaved fish could help scientists create sustainable LEDs
    Supermaterial created from heated scales. Sorry about the smell Scientists in Japan have figured out a new way to create sustainable LEDs: by microwaving fish.…  ( 5 min )
    You'll soon be able to ghost a WhatsApp group without making everyone hate you
    Well, until they find out that you've left, but at least they won't be immediately notified of your every move Many years ago, in the bowels of Silicon Valley, some genius realized that people enjoy getting notifications through social media – those little pings of dopamine that make you feel like you matter.…  ( 4 min )
    Google's bug bounty boss: Finding and patching vulns? 'Totally useless'
    Disclosing exploits, however, will earn you $100k Simply finding vulnerabilities and patching them "is totally useless," according to Google's Eduardo Vela, who heads the cloud giant's product security response team.…  ( 5 min )
    Microsoft unveils native Arm64 support in the .NET Framework
    Older operating systems excluded from the 4.8.1 release party Microsoft has updated its venerable .NET Framework once more, this time to add native Arm64 support while also removing support for some older operating systems.…  ( 5 min )
    Elon Musk sells Tesla shares worth $6.9b as Twitter lawsuit looms
    Market immediately reacts as tech titan looks to free up cash for 'unlikely' Twitter deal Tesla supremo Elon Musk has sold $6.88 billion worth of shares in the auto company, saying it is in case some equity partners exit ahead of an eventual Twitter deal, with both events deemed "unlikely."…  ( 5 min )
    Cloudflare: Someone tried to pull the Twilio phishing tactic on us too
    Attack was foiled by content delivery network's hardware security keys Cloudflare says it was subject to a similar attack to one made on comms company Twilio last week, but in this case it was thwarted by hardware security keys that are required to access applications and services.…  ( 5 min )
    Microsoft asks staff to think twice before submitting expenses
    Business travel, outside training, and picnic overheads all under watchful gaze of Redmond's accountants Microsoft is telling staff across the entire business to cast a more watchful eye over expenses in the face of economic uncertainty.…  ( 4 min )
    Polaris supercomputer boots up, paves way for Aurora exascale system
    Researchers cue up AI sims, code and workloads for Argonne Lab's most powerful beast Argonne National Laboratory has declared its Polaris supercomputer operational, providing the scientific and engineering community with a powerful new research tool, but also serving as a testbed to prepare for the upcoming Aurora exascale system.…  ( 4 min )
    The sins of OneDrive as Microsoft's cloud storage service turns 15
    SkyDrive? Placeholders? Outages? Yes, it's all gone swimmingly Opinion  Microsoft is celebrating 15 years of its cloud storage service, OneDrive, with a refreshed OneDrive Home but, strangely, no mention of SkyDrive, the placeholder fiasco or the multiple issues suffered by the service over the years. Lucky we're here, eh?…  ( 5 min )
    Foxconn will have to forget about investing in Tsinghua Unigroup
    International relations are hot as chips, and Taiwan cannot afford to empower China Taiwanese electronics manufacturer and Apple supplier Foxconn will likely be forced to back out of a $800 million investment in Chinese chipmaker and foundry operator Tsinghua Unigroup, thanks to rapidly deteriorating international relations.…  ( 5 min )
    Businesses should dump Windows for the Linux desktop
    It makes perfect sense for enterprises as well as enthusiasts. Just ask GitLab Opinion  I've been preaching the gospel of the Linux desktop for more years than some of you have been alive. However, unless you argue that the Linux desktop includes Android smartphones and ChromeOS laptops, there will be no year of the Linux desktop.…  ( 6 min )
    BT union wants pay dispute talks with telco's largest shareholders
    The game of corporate poker continues but CWU may find investors more interested in dividends The union representing BT Group workers protesting over their latest pay award are trying to pull as many levers as possible to force further negotiations, including setting up meetings with the telco's biggest investors.…  ( 5 min )
    NetBSD 9.3: A 2022 OS that can run on late-1980s hardware
    Need a cold shower? This is xNix like Windows users imagine it still is Version 9.3 of NetBSD is here, able to run on very low-end systems and with that authentic early-1990s experience.…  ( 7 min )
    Russian anti-satellite test added to a 'pressing threat to security' in space
    Too much junk in the orbital trunk Debris from a Russian anti-satellite missile is causing chaos in orbit, with shards of ex-spacecraft circling the Earth at perilous speeds.…  ( 4 min )
    Unity game engine attracts big cash from China's tech titans
    Chinese game devs targeted – maybe data protection laws too Game engine vendor Unity has announced it will commence operations in China, and has attracted a who's who of local tech giants as investors.…  ( 4 min )
    South Korean regulator worried Apple, Google, may be working around app store payment choice law
    Feels some actions may amount to coercion to stick with giants' own payment schemes instead of seeking alternatives South Korea's Communications Commission (KCC) said on Tuesday it is investigating Google, Apple and domestic app store operator One Store Co. over sneaky ways the companies may be dodging the country's in-app payment laws.…  ( 4 min )
    Clouds lift Lenovo ISG to third consecutive profit
    Sees sunlit uplands ahead with plans for factory and ITaaS expansions Lenovo's Infrastructure Solutions Group has reported a third straight quarterly profit, and the company sees better days ahead in the field so has ordered expansion of plants in Mexico and Hungary.…  ( 5 min )
    NASA's six-mile-wide orbital telescope is 1/6th built
    Interferometry will be used to turn six toaster-sized satellites into one giant solar observatory NASA has plans to build a telescope six miles (9.66km) wide in Earth orbit, comprised of a constellation of six toaster-sized satellites. The first of those toasters has just been finished. …  ( 4 min )
    Iran cheerfully admits using cryptocurrency to pay for imports
    Trade minister says to expect more of this sanctions-busting stuff starting in September Iran has announced it used cryptocurrency to pay for imports, raising the prospect that the nation is using digital assets to evade sanctions.…  ( 4 min )
    GitHub courts controversy by suspending Tornado Cash developers and reneging on cookie commitments
    If you're looking for free speech or privacy, move along GitHub over the past week has tested the trust of its users by enacting policies that call into question its commitment to free speech and privacy.…  ( 6 min )
    Google Cloud expands to Thailand, Malaysia and New Zealand
    Hopes to tap expected growth as it levels up to match rivals' presences Google Cloud has announced it will build facilities in Thailand, Malaysia, and New Zealand.…  ( 4 min )
    US claims Chinese supplier violated export rules by helping ZTE sell telco equipment to Iran
    Far East Cable acted as a broker in between ZTE and Iranian companies, it's alleged The US Bureau of Industry and Security has accused China's Far East Cable Co. of violating export controls by selling telecommunications equipment to Iran on behalf of supplier ZTE.…  ( 4 min )
    Micron pledges $40b for US fabs as financial headwinds mount
    The memory biz is bracing for a recession-fueled drop in demand Micron committed to investing $40 billion in new semiconductor manufacturing capacity in the US over the next decade, even as the company warns of financial headwinds due to slipping product demand.…  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Shirish Agarwal: Mum, Samsung Galaxy M-52
    Mum I dunno from where to start. While I’m not supposed to announce it, mum left this earth a month ago (thirteen days when I started to write this blog post) ago. I am still in part denial, part shock, and morose. Of all the seasons in a year, the rainy season used to be my favorite, now would I ever be able to look and feel other than the emptiness that this season has given me? In some senses, it is and was very ironic, when she became ill about last year, I had promised myself I would be by her side for 5-6 years, not go anywhere either Hillhacks or Debconf or any meetup and I was ok with that. Now that she’s no more I have no clue why am I living. What is the purpose, the utility? When she was alive, the utility was understandable. We had an unspoken agreement, I would like after her…  ( 16 min )
    Russell Coker: TSIG Error From SSSD
    A common error when using the sssd daemon to authenticate via Active Directory on Linux seems to be: sssd[$PID]: ; TSIG error with server: tsig verify failure This is from sssd launching the command “nsupdate -g” to do dynamic DNS updates. It is possible to specify the DNS server in /etc/sssd/sssd.conf but that will only be used AFTER the default servers have been attempted, so it seems impossible to stop this error from happening. It doesn’t appear to do any harm as the correct server is discovered and used eventually. The commands piped to the nsupdate command will be something like: server $SERVERIP realm $DOMAIN update delete $HOSTNAME.$DOMAIN. in A update add $HOSTNAME.$DOMAIN. 3600 in A $HOSTIP send update delete $HOSTNAME.$DOMAIN. in AAAA send Related posts: Dynamic DNS The Problem My SE Linux Play Machine has been down... Bizarre “No space left on device” error from Xen What should have been a routine “remove DIMMs and run... Finding Corrupt Files that cause a Kernel Error There is a BTRFS bug in kernel 3.13 which is...  ( 13 min )
  • Open

    "CC_OPTIMIZE_FOR_PERFORMANCE_O3" Performance Tunable Dropped In Linux 6.0
    Following recent upstream discussions around the -O3 compiler optimizations for the Linux kernel, the Kconfig switch advertising this option is being removed in Linux 6.0...  ( 4 min )
    Linux 6.0 Adds Raptor Lake P Support To Intel's TCC Cooling Driver
    While last week saw the main set of thermal and power management updates for Linux 6.0, a few more items were sent in this week for the v6.0 merge window...  ( 5 min )
    Weston 11.0 Alpha Released With Many Improvements For This Wayland Compositor
    Weston 11.0 Alpha is out as the newest feature milestone for this reference Wayland compositor that has seen quite an uptick in development activity this year...  ( 5 min )
    AMD Ryzen Threadripper 5965WX Benchmarks Show Some Speedups With Linux 6.0 Git
    With AMD EPYC showing some nice gains on Linux 6.0, I've been eager to begin testing Linux 6.0 on more systems especially now that the v6.0 merge window is winding down... With now having the shiny new AMD Ryzen Threadripper 5965WX, I decided to take this high-end 24-core chip for a run with Linux 6.0 Git to see how it performs over Linux 5.19 stable...  ( 5 min )
    Linux 6.0 Adds EFI Mirrored Memory & ACPI PRM For 64-bit Arm
    The EFI changes were merged last week for the Linux 6.0 cycle and contain two notable improvements on the ARM64 side...  ( 4 min )
    IPFS Supported In FFmpeg 5.1, IPFS Devs Envision Support In More Open-Source Projects
    IPFS as the "InterPlanetary File-System" protocol for peer-to-peer network support in decentralized file sharing as a distributed file-system is now supported with FFmpeg 5.1. IPFS developers at Protocol Labs are also looking at expanding support for this protocol to other open-source projects...  ( 5 min )
    Linux 6.0 Continues Plumbing For Compute Express Link (CXL)
    The Linux kernel continues making preparations around the very exciting Compute Express Link (CXL) thanks to the work of Intel engineers...  ( 5 min )
    Linux 6.0 Brings NFSD Improvements For Courteous Server, Greater Cache Scalability
    The NFS server improvements have been merged for the ongoing Linux 6.0 merge window...  ( 4 min )
  • Open

    Spider-Man Remastered pc-debuterar på fredag, lagom till fredagsgroggen
    Exakt releasetid spikad.  ( 6 min )
    Ny Pokémon-miniserie i september, i och med Pokémon: The Arceus Chronicles
    Fyra avsnitt till Netflix.  ( 6 min )
    Färre än 1 % av Netflix prenumeranter spelar dagligen Netflix-spel
    Detta enligt dataanalyser.  ( 7 min )
    Breaking Bad-skaparen ville göra GTA-liknande spel av serien
    Även ett PSVR-spel kunde ha blivit av.  ( 6 min )
    Rise and shine! Half-Life 2: VR släpps som beta i september
    Spela hela Half-Life 2 i virtual reality.  ( 6 min )
    Live - Se Nintendo visa Splatoon 3
    I 30 minuter lång videostream.  ( 6 min )
    Battalion 1944 kapitulerar - gratis pc-version på Steam, konsolversionerna skrotas
    Intresset för WW2-pangande online var för svalt.  ( 6 min )
    Snabbkollen - Hur bra blir GTA 6?
    Har Rockstar ett till storverk i sig?  ( 6 min )
    Betalda lootlådor försvinner från Overwatch om tre veckor
    Och Overwatch 2 skippar lådorna helt.  ( 6 min )
    Gamescoms öppningsshow blir två timmar lång
    Med 30+ spel som ska visas upp.  ( 6 min )
    River City Girls 2 kan ha blivit försenat i Europa
    Men än så länge är förseningen bara bekräftad för Nordamerika och Japan.  ( 6 min )
    Efter Sonic: Nu ska även Pac-Man bli till live action-film
    Waka waka?  ( 6 min )
    Nightdive berättar varför Blade Runner-remastern blev som den blev
    Covid, saknad källkod och brist på ledarskap som kunde stampa på bromsen.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Intel förtydligar prestandamål och lanseringsfönster för Arc "Alchemist"
    I en sammanfattande artikel konstaterar Intel att AMD och Nvidia möter prisvärt motstånd i moderna spel, och att lanseringen kanske inte nödvändigtvis sker i sommar.  ( 6 min )
    Diskreta nyheter när vikbara Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 och Z Flip 4 lanseras
    Förändringarna med årets upplaga av Samsungs vikbara satsningar är inte övertydliga, men för den som eftersöker bättre kamera eller mer prestanda finns intressanta nyheter.  ( 9 min )
    Samsungs presenterar vikbara Galaxy Z Fold 4 och Z Flip 4
    Förändringarna med årets upplaga av Samsungs vikbara satsningar är inte övertydliga, men för den som eftersöker bättre kamera eller mer prestanda finns intressanta nyheter.  ( 9 min )
    Youtube-videor lär AI att spela Minecraft
    I Minecraft finns inte rätt eller fel, men maskininlärning med understöd av instruktionsvideor som träningsdata knäcker den komplexa koden.  ( 5 min )
    Veckans fråga: Vilken mediaspelare använder du för musik?
    Vi följer upp förra veckans Winamp-nyhet med en fråga om mediaspelare. Hur spelar du upp dina låtar?  ( 5 min )
    Förpackning och priser för AMD Ryzen 7000 hittar ut på webben
    Ryzen 7000-serien väntar runt hörnet. Nu tar Videocardz del av uppgifter som kan vara seriens förpackning och ungefärliga pris.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    "It doesn't surprise me, but I'm still pretty upset" – MultiVersus modders lose momentum after DMCA strikes
    The MultiVersus hype is still strong, moving on from its rapturous release a few weeks ago. The game has a lot to offer for fans of the ridiculous collection of IP under the Warner Bros umbrella, and with news of more characters on the horizon, it looks like they’ll have more to look forward to. Even then, for a significant portion of the playerbase, the game is ripe for more. These creatives, artists, and memsters make up the MultiVersus Modding community. However, the future of this community and all the momentum it gained due to a mix of the popularity of the platform fighter and the appeal of what they were creating is uncertain. This comes thanks to a rise in copyright strikes on published video content featuring mods, the main avenue creatives use to show off their modded works. One such modder, who goes by JtheDuelist online, began creating mods around four years ago, where they created skins for Monster Hunter World, afterwards moving onto Guilty Gear: Strive and Final Fantasy 14 after cutting their teeth. They first got into MultiVersus after receiving a code for the alpha test prior to launch, and began their modding projects for the title after coming across others on modding website Gamebanana. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Apex Legends season 14 patch notes round-up: Hunted buffs, nerfs, and map changes
    Apex Legends season 14 is finally out, and with it comes a huge number of changes to the battle royale. With Hunted, you can expect map changes, buffs and nerfs to weapons and characters, and tweaks to the ranked system. As such, we’ve recapped the Apex Legends season 14 patch notes here so you can quickly go through and see how the game has shifted. Vantage is the new sniper brought to Apex Legends season 14, and comes with a variety of unique abilities that you need to know about! Read more  ( 21 min )
    Forspoken has an ad so bad it's becoming a meme
    A brand new trailer for Forspoken was released today, bringing alongside it a wave of cringe via the protagonists’ description of the wacky situation they’ve found themselves in. In fact, this bad boy can fit so much cringe in it, that the internet has gathered round and have begun the age-old practice of memeing it to death, creating their own snarky takes on the video across social media. Mock-narration for God of War, Yakuza, Doom, and Devil May Cry have all been thrown into the ring. Our favourite though has to be a full on trailer made for Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2. Which was posted online by Twitter user Bobvids. It’s an absolute must-watch! The original trailer, you can watch for yourselves below. Brace yourselves. So you may be wondering, what’s the deal with Forspoken anyway? Originally planned for a October 11 release date, Square Enix announced the title would be pushed back to early next year on January 24. That means you’ve still got some time to kill before you see freaking dragons and talk to your cuffs, we’re afraid. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Sonic Triple Trouble 16-bit is a free fan-game – and a worthy successor to Sonic Mania
    It’s been a bit of an up-and-down year to be a Sonic fan. Sonic Frontiers has looked brilliant and troubled in alternating media drops, and Sonic Origins offered fans the definitive versions of the 2D classics they’ve been clamoring for – except they were riddled with bugs, and weren’t really definitive. But now, Sonic fans have another reason to celebrate: the release of Sonic Triple Trouble… but in a new format. For those of you who aren’t a thousand years old, Triple Trouble is a classic 8-bit Sonic game. Because the 8-bit games came out at roughly the same time as the 16-bit games, they’re rightly not as revered or beloved – but they are still, broadly, lovely little platformers that attempt to adapt the Sonic formula for much weaker platforms. A few of these games were loose adaptations of their Mega Drive equivalents – but a few were all-original affairs. Most notable of these is Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble. This 8-but title is actually older than Sonic’s other classic 2D adventures, releasing for the Sega Game Gear handheld a few months after Sonic & Knuckles hit Mega Drive. That placement in the Sonic timeline got some fans thinking: what if this game had been 16-bit, and what if it were a sequel to Sonic 3 & Knuckles? What if it were, essentially, Sonic 4? Read more  ( 18 min )
    Iron Galaxy on how Rumbleverse isn't just another battle royale Fortnite wannabe
    Iron Galaxy is a developer with a lot of merit, in my book. Responsible for nearly 15 years of great contract work, the studio is also known for producing its own projects every now and again, all of which bears marks of its own brand of action. You may know them for the latter seasons of Killer Instinct, Divekick, and now Rumbleverse. A venture into the battle royale genre – albeit with guns and firefights traded out for a vastly different gunshow packed with big muscles and wrestling – this is the first big in-house IP release from the studio for some time. To find out the origins of this game, as well as how the team at Iron Galaxy plans to differentiate its game in a saturated market, and its overall hopes for the title, I sat down and talked to co-CEO Chelsea Blasko about everything Rumbleverse. It’s been widely reported that Blasko was the source of the original wrestling battle royale idea, stemming from their desire to recreate the fun of classic wrestling and the high-flying stars of the Macho Man era. Read more  ( 20 min )
    Gamescom Opening Night Live 2022 promises 30+ games, here's the start time and where to watch
    While I haven't the slightest idea how he's managed it, Geoff Keighley has announced that Gamescom Opening Night Live is to run for two hours, with 30+ world-premiere announcements. After the event was forced to go online for two years as a result of the pandemic, Gamescom will finally be an in-person event running from August 24-28, 2022, in Cologne, Germany. Meanwhile, to kick things off, Geoff Keighley confirms that the Gamescom Opening Night Live will be streamed from Germany on August 23. For those who wish to attend the event in-person, which is said to have an audience of thousands of fans, you can purchase one of the limited tickets from Gamescom's official website. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Sonic the Hedgehog is coming to Fall Guys
    The hype surrounding Sonic the Hedgehog right now is relatively high, especially given that 30th anniversary celebrations for the swift hedgehog have been underway for a while now. We’re also still awaiting the release of Sonic Frontiers, and it was announced just yesterday that a third Sonic the Hedgehog movie is on the way! So, it would make perfect sense for the blue blur to make a cameo elsewhere, right? Especially given recent leaks that the hedgehog may be coming to Fall Guys. Well, that’s exactly what’s happening this week, as Sonic the Hedgehog and friends speed into the world of Fall Guys for a limited-time event. The event will begin on August 11 and run up until August 15, 2022, in celebration of over thirty years of Sonic the Hedgehog, his friends, and even his enemies. Read more  ( 15 min )
  • Open

    How to Record Streaming Audio in Ubuntu and other Linux Distributions
    Learn how to record your voice, streaming audio or other sounds on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions.  ( 27 min )
    What is the Difference Between macOS and Linux?
    No macOS is not based on Linux. No macOS is not entirely similar to Linux. Take a look at the similarities and differences between macOS and Linux.  ( 31 min )
  • Open

    Comic for 2022.08.10 - Thud
    New Cyanide and Happiness Comic  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Complex Vowels
    No content preview  ( 1 min )

  • Open

    Patch Tuesday: Yet another Microsoft RCE bug under active exploit
    Oh, and that critical VMware auth bypass vuln? Miscreants found it, too August Patch Tuesday clicks off the week of hacker summer camp in Las Vegas this year, so it's basically a code cracker's holiday too. …  ( 7 min )
    US car industry leads the world in production cuts over chip shortages
    Car crunch bites, but relief looks likely As the chip shortage rolls on, automakers are still hitting the brakes on production, cutting 180,000 vehicles from production worldwide this week alone.…  ( 4 min )
    Wave of corruption claims crash into China's chip Big Fund
    On the same day the United States kickstarts one of its own China’s semiconductor investment fund — better known as the Big Fund — has become mired in controversy over the past few weeks as the country’s corruption watchdog continues to sniff out allegations of misconduct.…  ( 4 min )
    President Biden signs CHIPS and Science Act into law
    American semiconductor manufacturing is back, baby! On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law.…  ( 5 min )
    Alibaba mimics Amazon by slashing jobs after poor results
    Covid lockdowns, Chinese regulations and SEC threats make Alibaba's job numbers worrying Alibaba's woes continue, with the Chinese tech giant's latest financial reports indicating it cut nearly 10,000 jobs, or around 3.8 percent of its workforce, in the second quarter of 2022. …  ( 5 min )
    Northrop Grumman to use Firefly Aerospace tech in its de-Russianized Antares
    SpaceX to pick up the slack while the rocket is updated yet again Russia's invasion of Ukraine is being felt at Northrop Grumman, forcing it to make alternative plans that now include asking Firefly Aerospace to build the first stage of its Antares rocket.…  ( 4 min )
    APIC fail: Intel 'Sunny Cove' chips with SGX spill secrets
    AMD Zen chips, meanwhile, are vulnerable to side-channel data scrying A group of computer scientists has identified an architectural error in certain recent Intel CPUs that can be abused to expose SGX enclave data like private encryption keys.…  ( 7 min )
    Midwest universities unite to support US chip industry revival
    Alliance will hopefully give students path to job as well as backing Intel's Ohio fab plans A dozen US midwestern research colleges and universities have signed up to a project intended to bolster the semiconductor and microelectronics industries with combined research and education to ensure work for their students in high-tech industries.…  ( 4 min )
    Tesla Autopilot fails to notice child-sized objects in testing
    Campaign group Dawn Project results calculated from small sample size, test done without hands on the wheel The latest version of Tesla's Full Self Driving (FSD) Autopilot beta has a bit of a kink: it doesn't appear to notice child-sized objects in its path, according to a campaign group.…  ( 5 min )
    Malicious deepfakes used in attacks up 13% from last year, VMware finds
    Plus: Crooks swimming around your network, looking for a way in, says Incident Response Threat Report Security teams are facing down more cyberattacks following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and sophisticated crooks are using double-extortion techniques and, increasingly, deepfakes in their strikes.…  ( 5 min )
    US Space Force deploys robot dogs at Cape Canaveral base
    Patrolling quadrupeds not fitted with 7.62mm tank machine guns – yet Space Force, the sixth branch of the US military has tasked robot dogs with patrolling its base at Cape Canaveral.…  ( 5 min )
    Lenovo updates ThinkPad mobile workstations with AMD variants
    SIGGRAPH 2022: Lenovo's ThinkStation P620 only desktop workstation powered by AMD's Ryzen Threadripper Lenovo has unveiled new mobile workstations based on AMD Ryzen processors, comprising a mid-range model with a 15.6 inch screen, and a 14 inch system pitched as Lenovo's lightest mobile workstation.…  ( 4 min )
    Microsoft's fix for 'data damage' risk hits PC performance
    'AES-based operations might be two times slower' without latest updates Microsoft has warned that Windows devices with the newest supported processors might be susceptible to data damage, noting the initial fix might have slowed operations down for some.…  ( 4 min )
    Quantum systems maker D-Wave takes the SPAC route
    Company had hoped deal would grant access to $300m trust account, but shareholders cleared it out Quantum computing pioneer D-Wave Systems has completed its planned merger with DPCM Capital, taking the company public on the New York Stock Exchange.…  ( 4 min )
    Barclays inks multi-year deal with Microsoft, starts rolling out Teams
    Deployment plan includes unified data governance platform Purview Barclays Bank has selected Microsoft Teams as its preferred collaboration platform, meaning that up to 120,000 of the company's employees and partners globally could be using the service soon.…  ( 4 min )
    Parallels increases prices with Desktop version 18
    Running Windows apps on your M1 Mac just got a bit more expensive Corel-owned Parallels has put out an update for its Windows-on-a-Mac Desktop product with a few neat new features and an eye-watering price.…  ( 5 min )
    Beijing blitz of crypto promotions and marketing underway
    Cyberspace Administration of China closes accounts and removes to 'rectify the chaos' China's internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) vowed on Tuesday to clean up what it sees as bad and blatantly misleading marketing of virtual currencies.…  ( 4 min )
    BT demos 4-carrier 5G aggregation – on a live network
    Telco promises uplift in capacity and speed once deployed BT has tested operating four carrier components (4CC) on a 5G Standalone network, and claimed it is the first in Europe to demonstrate this on a live network. The technology will deliver higher capacity and speed to end user devices when eventually rolled out across the entire mobile network.…  ( 5 min )
    Report slams UK plan to become 'science superpower' by 2030
    Lords cite 'frequent' policy changes, lack of metrics, post-Brexit funding issues as top issues How's the UK doing in its ambitions to become a sci-tech "superpower" by 2030? According to a report by the Lords Science and Technology Committee, it's currently on track to make the phrase an "empty slogan."…  ( 8 min )
    Harvard boffins build multimodal AI system to predict 14 types of cancer
    Many sources become one Multimodal AI models, trained on numerous types of data, could help doctors screen patients at risk of developing multiple different cancers more accurately..…  ( 5 min )
    Burger King just sent spam receipts to customers
    Have it your way – whether you want it or not Burger King has just served spam to many of its customers, who have complained they received an emailed receipt to advise them of a non-existent order for no food.…  ( 3 min )
    Aussies crowdsource a business case for central bank digital currencies
    Ring-fenced tests planned, despite previous regulatory skepticism about the need for fiat digi-dollars Australia"s Reserve Bank (RBA) has announced it will try to find applications that justify the creation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).…  ( 4 min )
    Alibaba's e-commerce arm counts carbon to encourage you to buy more stuff
    Encourages 'eco friendly' consumer choices in exchange for discounts Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba launched a tool on Monday that encourages "eco-friendly consumer behavior" by rewarding customers for purchases and "green" activities on its apps with discounts on more stuff.…  ( 4 min )
    Electrical explosion at Google datacenter injures three
    Search, Maps and YouTube later suffer brief outages - nothing as concerning as the injuries suffered by workers Google's consumer-facing and advertising services have faltered after an incident at one of its major datacenters.…  ( 4 min )
    Digital Ocean customers back away from blockchains
    Junior cloud growing nicely, but calls out customers' easing ardor for distributed ledgers Junior cloud Digital Ocean has reported a marked dip in customers using its IaaS services to run blockchains.…  ( 5 min )
    Chinese scammers target kids with promise of extra gaming hours
    Cyberspace regulator's fraud report finds all is not well behind the Great Firewall Fraudsters in China have targeted a child with promises of allowing them to get around the nation's time limits on playing computer games – for a mere $560, according to the nation's cyberspace administration. Yesterday the CAC detailed some of the 12,000 acts of online fraud perpetrated against minors it handled this year.…  ( 4 min )
    Intel challenges Nvidia, AMD with trio of workstation GPUs
    For those that just can't wait for AV1 encoding Intel unveiled its answer to the AMD's FirePro and what used to be Nvidia's Quadro workstation GPUs this week with the launch of a trio of new graphics cards aimed at professional applications like architectural design, engineering, and content creation.…  ( 6 min )
    China-linked spies used six backdoors to steal info from defense, industrial enterprise orgs
    We're 'highly likely' to see similar attacks, Kaspersky warned Beijing-backed cyberspies used specially crafted phishing emails and six different backdoors to break into and then steal confidential data from military and industrial groups, government agencies and other public institutions, according to Kaspersky researchers.…  ( 5 min )
    Google sues Sonos yet again, claiming it stole IP and infringed patents
    Patent lawsuits, the next saga Google hit Sonos with two lawsuits on Monday, claiming patent infringement on seven different technologies associated with smart speakers, as part of its ongoing battle with the audio hardware biz over intellectual property.…  ( 5 min )
    US treasury whips up sanctions for crypto mixer Tornado Cash
    Being the money launderer for North Korea’s Lazarus Group comes at a price The US Treasury Department is levying sanctions against Tornado Cash, a notorious cryptocurrency mixer that it says has been used by threat groups like ransomware gang Lazarus to launder stolen digital assets.…  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Unity considering $17.5b offer from mobile tech company AppLovin
    Mobile gaming technology company AppLovin have made an offer to buy Unity Software in a $17.54 billion all-stock deal. As reported by Reuters, Unity's board said it would consider the offer. The proposal comes a few weeks after Unity announced plans to purchase AppLovin competitor ironSource. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Audio-Technica's excellent AT2020USB+ mic is 63% off at Amazon US
    The Audio-Technica AT2020USB+ microphone is a highly-rated microphone for content creators, and today it's going cheap at Amazon US. Normally this microphone goes for $149, but today it's going for $99 - a $50 reduction and more than $170 off its original MSRP. Above: the AT2020USB+'s press shot is improved by the addition of the stock photo of a cat. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Elite Dangerous's update 13 starts a new story chapter and fixes a lot of bugs
    Elite Dangerous's Update 13 is live now, bringing an end to the two-year-long Azimuth Saga and laying the groundwork for the space sim's ominously titled next chapter, Aftermath. There's a cinematic video below which reveals the climax of the event, and then I'll dig into the patch notes a little. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Elden Ring's latest patch makes lots of things a little easier
    Elden Ring's patch 1.06 offers dozens of small tweaks that should make your journey across The Land Between just a little easier. The biggest of the changes are to how summoning works, but there are also tweaks to quests, attack speeds, and bug fixes that'll maybe not make you die less, but will at least make your deaths fairer. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Razer's Iskur XL gaming chair is down to £287 on Amazon
    The XL version of the Razer Iskur gaming chair is down to £287, nearly half the price it is on Razer's official website and an all-time historic low price. Curiously, it's also nearly £230 cheaper than the regular size version! Katharine reviewed that Iskur previously and rated it highly, so if this size fits you then this is a nice chance to pick it up at a very fair price. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Subnautica dev's next game is a turn-based sci-fi affair
    Unknown Worlds, the creators of Subnautica, and Krafton, the studio behind PUBG, have announced that they'll be showing something at Gamescom later this month. What exactly? That I couldn't tell you, but it's apparently a turn-based game and an entirely new IP. Read more  ( 16 min )
    South Of The Circle review: a Cold War story with emotional highs that fumbles the landing
    Peter is a guy with his head in the clouds. Literally. Well, sort of. A climate science lecturer at Cambridge University, Peter's great passion in life is cloud research. All he wants to do is study clouds: their different formations, their flight paths, their properties, everything. He can’t get enough of them, and finds them fascinating enough to be the subject of his 100-page PhD thesis. It’s a poetic subject and one that matches his temperament as a boyish and awkward researcher and 'path of least resistance' kinda guy. But around him the world is spiralling from the political tensions of the Cold War, and as much as Peter wishes to escape to in the clouds, current events are keeping him firmly tethered to the realities of an impending war. It’s this tension that makes South Of The Circle such an engrossing story. With player choices that subtly tug the game’s narrative needle in ways you might not expect, it's clear skies and fair winds for the game’s three-hour journey. But with an abrupt ending after a calculated slow-burn drama, it's a rough landing. Read more  ( 19 min )
    Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak reveals two more new monsters coming in tomorrow's free update
    More monsters and expanded Anomaly Quests are coming to Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak tomorrow, August 10th, in the free version 11 update. Read more  ( 16 min )
    GameStop's NFT marketplace sold games without developers' permission
    An NFT minter using the GameStop marketplace has admitted to minting developers' games without their consent or knowledge. The games, which are freely available on itch.io, were sold several hundred times before GameStop delisted them, and continue to exist on GameStop's servers regardless of the wishes of the original creators. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Co-op alien robot shooter Arc Raiders delayed into 2023
    Cooperative shooter Arc Raiders has been delayed. Though the alien robot invasion was originally scheduled for some time this year, it'll now be descending from the upper atmosphere in 2023. Read more  ( 16 min )
    This Skyrim mod adds a Shadow Of Mordor-inspired Nemesis system
    A new mod for Skyrim: Special Edition draws inspiration from the Middle-earth: Shadow Of Mordor series by turning regular enemies into powerful Nemesis versions if they kill you. Rather than simply die and reload a save, you'll respawn elsewhere in the world, ready to hunt down your new named Nemesis. They might even loot your gear and use it against you. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Marvel's Midnight Suns has been delayed again
    Tactical superhero 'em up Marvel's Midnight Suns has been delayed for the second time. Pushed back once before, it's now nebulously due "later this fiscal year." Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Teen’s jailing shows exactly how Facebook will help anti-abortion states
    A teen shared one message, then cops requested all her data without her consent.  ( 6 min )
    China’s secretive space plane flies higher and longer than before
    So what is it doing up there? Secret, space-y stuff, of course.  ( 5 min )
    Parallels Desktop 18 for Mac adds ProMotion support
    Seamless gaming controller syncing, USB 3.0 improvements, and more.  ( 5 min )
    Biden signs bill injecting billions into US chipmaking to combat shortage
    The CHIPS and Science Act authorizes subsidies up to $200 billion over 10 years.  ( 6 min )
    US blacklisting of Tornado Cash sparks outcry from cryptocurrency industry
    Tornado Cash banned over money laundering but has legitimate uses as privacy tool.  ( 6 min )
    10 malicious Python packages exposed in latest repository attack
    Supply-chain attacks are moving GitHub toward digitally signed packages.  ( 5 min )
    Nokia lawsuit forces Oppo and OnePlus out of the German market
    Nokia and Oppo fight over patent renewal fees, just like in a TV carriage dispute.  ( 5 min )
    The next desktop-sized OLED monitor will cost $3,500
    The 31.5-inch PA32C targets appropriately sized work, not big-screen entertainment.  ( 6 min )
    Windows 11 encryption bug could cause data loss, temporary slowdowns on newer PCs
    Recent Windows updates can resolve the problem but not undo damage.  ( 5 min )
    SGX, Intel’s supposedly impregnable data fortress, has been breached yet again
    ÆPIC Leak spills users' most sensitive secrets in seconds from SGX enclaves.  ( 5 min )
    Crypto and the US government are headed for a decisive showdown
    Lawsuits may decide whether most digital assets are illegal securities offerings.  ( 6 min )
    Small businesses count cost of Apple’s privacy changes
    Online brands reliant on personalised ads ramp back marketing spending.  ( 7 min )
    Setting our heart-attack-predicting AI loose with “no-code” tools
    In the second part of this three-part series, our heart attack predictions take flight.  ( 5 min )
    Almost every Ferrari sold since 2005 is being recalled
    A faulty brake fluid reservoir cap might not vent properly, causing brake failure.  ( 4 min )
    Jumping spiders may experience something like REM sleep
    If it's an analog of mammalian REM sleep, then it evolved very early.  ( 6 min )
    It’s possible no electric vehicles will qualify for the new tax credit
    There is no grace period, so credits effectively end once the bill is signed.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    AMD Zen 4 CPU Pricing Leaked: Ryzen 9 7950X May Cost Over $800
    An anonymous source has provided news outlet VideoCardz with the alleged packaging and pricing for AMD's Ryzen 7000 processors.  ( 60 min )
    Quantum World Record Set for Two-Qubit Gate Operation
    Researchers with the Japanese Institute for Molecular Science have broken the previous record for the fastest two-qubit gate operation ever done in quantum computing.  ( 60 min )
    Micron, Western Digital Will Use Chips & Science Money for Memory R&D, New Fabs
    As Joe Biden signs Chips and Science into law, Micron and Western Digital prep to establish new R&D and manufacturing operations in the U.S.  ( 62 min )
    Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered Gets Nvidia Game Ready Driver
    Nvidia has officially released a Game Ready driver for Sony's upcoming feature rich Spider-Man Remastered PC port.  ( 59 min )
    Grab a Lenovo Legion 5 Pro 16 for $1,599: Real Deals
    If you're looking for a gaming laptop at a good price, then this offering ticks a lot of boxes to power the latest and greatest titles.  ( 65 min )
    RTX 4080 and RTX 4070 Power Consumption Dropped By Up to 30%
    Nvidia's RTX 4080 and RTX 4070 have reportedly dropped in estimated power consumption by up to 30%, with the RTX 4080 falling to 320W.  ( 61 min )
    Shuttle's New SW580R8 Barebones Workstation Supports Xeon W CPUs
    Small-form-factor PC maker Shuttle has announced a workstation case with an Intel W580 chipset.  ( 62 min )
    Leaked Nvidia CEO Memo Assures No Layoffs After Disappointing Q2
    A leaked memo penned by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang looked to reassure its 22,000 employess that no layoffs are planned, following the company's disappointing Q2 results. in fact, it seems Nvidia is opening up its purse strings to better retain its talent.  ( 59 min )
    AMD's Sabrina Chromebook SoC Is Really a Mendocino Alias
    A new report has revealed that AMD's mysterious Sabrina project was just an alias for the already announced Mendocino project, featuring Zen 2 6nm SoC's running RDAN2 graphics.  ( 58 min )
    Windows 11 Encryption May Damage Data, Microsoft Says
    VAES (vectorized AES) instructions used by apps like like BitLocker should accelerate disk data encryption. But Microsoft has recently had to patch a data damage flaw.  ( 59 min )
    AMD X670E AM5 Motherboard Lands in Overclocker's Hands
    Overclockers are now receiving AM5 X670E motherboard samples ahead of reviews to overclock AMD's Ryzen 7000 processors.  ( 59 min )
    BenQ Mobiuz EX2710R Gaming Monitor Review: Curvaceous, Colorful and Snappy
    Curved 27-inch monitors are somewhat rare, but BenQ’s Mobiuz EX2710R is one of the better examples. It combines a high-contrast VA panel with 165 Hz, Adaptive-Sync, HDR and extended color. And it delivers a smooth and responsive gaming experience.  ( 69 min )
  • Open

    Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak getting four new monsters and more tomorrow
    One month after the release of Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, Capcom has detailed the expansion's first free post-launch update, which arrives tomorrow, 10th August, bringing a heap of new additions - including four new monsters - for hardened hunters. We already knew the Seething Bazelguese and Lucent Nargacuga would be arriving as part of Sunbreak's first post-launch update, but Capcom has now revealed two more additions in the form of the Silver Rathalos and Gold Rathian, with all four becoming available at Master Rank 10. The Lucent Nargacuga, which returns to the series for the first time since making its unforgettable debut in Monster Hunter Ultimate 3, can reflect the moonlight to turn invisible, and is found in the new Forlorn Arena - a reinterpretation of its original moonlit home. Read more  ( 16 min )
    MultiVersus has already welcomed 10m players to the brawl
    Its beta may have only gone live recently, but Warner Bros' MultiVersus brawler is bringing in some impressive numbers. In fact, at the time of writing, 10,292,969 players have already flocked to the IP riddled smash fest (via tracker.gg). Meanwhile, there are currently 42,133 players thrashing and crashing their way through the game on Steam. Read more  ( 15 min )
    $17.5bn Unity acquisition proposed by gaming software company AppLovin
    AppLovin has offered to buy Unity Software in a $17.54bn all-stock deal. As reported by Reuters, the offer was made earlier today. It is claimed that AppLovin will offer $58.85 for each Unity share. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Streamer plays Final Fantasy 14 with an actual book and pencil
    Not content with playing through Elden Ring with a banana (no, really), streamer Super Louis 64 has now been playing Final Fantasy 14 using an actual book and pencil. The streamer played as the book-wielding Scholar healer, complete with a matching graduation gown. Spells are cast by literally scribbling in a giant book. Fantasy becomes reality! Read more  ( 15 min )
    Battalion developer Bulkhead says Square Enix partnership has reached an end
    Bulkhead Interactive, the Derby-based developer of old-school WW2 shooter Battalion 1944, has announced a "formal end" to its relationship with Square Enix. The Final Fantasy publisher purchased a 20 percent stake of Bulkhead back in 2018, and announced plans for a fresh project at the studio. Today also brings a long-awaited update on Battalion itself, which will get an "overhauled, final update" and name change to Battalion: Legacy on 16th August. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Footage surfaces of white Xbox Elite Series 2 controller
    New footage showing off a white version of the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller has made its way online. This footage shared by YouTuber Nicholas Lugo and spotted by Twitter user Rebs Gaming (via VGC), shows Lugo unboxing what they claim to be the "only white Xbox Elite in the United States". While the video doesn't go into any more details, such as how Lugo happens to have this mythical controller in their possession, it does all seem to be genuine. It even has the controller's soft shell case. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Skyrim mod adds innovative Nemesis system from Shadow of Mordor
    The most innovative aspect of Lord of the Rings game Shadow of Mordor was its Nemesis system that had enemies being promoted after killing you. Now it's in Skyrim, thanks to modder Syclonix (via PC Gamer). The Nemesis and Alternative Death System mod is available on NexusMods and makes "every enemy that defeats you into a unique Nemesis" to create "emergent stories of revenge". Read more  ( 15 min )
    Here's a breakdown on Dragon Quest Treasures' loot mechanics
    Square Enix has shared new gameplay details of the upcoming Dragon Quest Treasures, the upcoming role-playing game spin-off headed to Nintendo Switch. Throughout the game, and as the name suggests, there will be a variety of treasures for players to uncover. This includes smaller items, known as "bric-a-brac", which will glow with a silvery aura when you come up to them. You will also see your monster companions getting excited, and little speech bubbles will appear above their heads when they know you are in the vicinity of some goodies. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Mario Kart Tour adding "new ways to play" in September
    Smartphone spin-off Mario Kart Tour will receive a multiplayer update in September which will add "new ways to play". This seems likely to be the game's Battle Mode update, after files hinting to its inclusion were found a couple of months ago. "With the Mario Kart Tour multiplayer update at the end of September, we're adding new ways to play multiplayer," Nintendo wrote, "and removing Gold Races (available only to Mario Kart Tour Gold Pass subscribers; see in-game notification for more details). Look for more info in early September!" Read more  ( 15 min )
    Turns out Metroid Prime was almost scored by electronic duo Autechre
    Sean Booth of British electronic duo Autechre has claimed they were considered to score the GameCube classic Metroid Prime. Booth streamed a "quick AMA" video on Twitch (ironically, six hours long) in which a fan asked if the duo were involved in Metroid Prime's music (thanks VGC). Both Booth and his musical partner Rob Brown appear in the credits of the 2002 game, sparking much speculation as to their involvement. Read more  ( 15 min )
    New Elden Ring patch expands multiplayer summoning
    A new patch has just gone live in Elden Ring, with new balance changes, bug fixes, and changes to multiplayer. Version 1.06 is now available across all platforms. The biggest change is to summoning, with the additional functionality of sending summoning signs to pools in multiple - and distant - areas. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Behind the messy launch of Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition
    Two lead developers on Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition have detailed some of the factors that led to the game's disappointing state upon release. Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition released on 23rd June, and received a negative reaction from critics and fans alike. The controversy didn't end there, with many also unhappy about the delisting of the fan-made ScummVM version of the original game on GOG. The ScummVM version, seen as vastly superior to Nightdive's remaster, was subsequently reinstated a week later, and was also then packaged with the Enhanced Edition on Steam. Now, Nightdive Studio director of business development Larry Kuperman and lead producer on Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition Dimitris Giannakis have discussed the troubled development of the project with PCGamesN. Read more  ( 16 min )
    GTA6 will set "creative benchmarks" for "all entertainment", Take-Two says
    Take-Two has talked bullishly of its hopes for the success of Grand Theft Auto 6, amidst a mixed picture of financial results. Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick blamed a "softer economy" for a downturn in revenue for both halves of the now-combined Take-Two and mobile giant Zynga. The now-completed buyout has also left a $117m hole in the company's bottom line due to business acquisition costs. Read more  ( 15 min )
    David Cage defends response to allegations of unhealthy studio culture at Quantic Dream
    David Cage has responded to allegations of unhealthy studio culture and inappropriate behaviour at Quantic Dream, which he previously described as a "smear campaign". Published in this month's Edge Magazine, Cage discusses in depth the company culture of the studio and denies a lack of humility in its response to allegations. "I don't think we had an aggressive attitude," he said. "When you're accused of things that go against everything you believe in, everything you've done in your life, it hurts. It went beyond just attacking the studio culture. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Less than 1% of Netflix subscribers play its games daily
    There are roughly 221 million Netflix subscribers, but only 1.7 million actually engage with the subscription service's games on a daily basis. To put that into perspective, that is less than one percent of users. According to Apptopia (via CNBC), Netflix's game offerings have only been downloaded a total of 23.3m times since the company's foray into this market. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie locks down 2024 release date
    It's still nearly two and a half years away, but the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie now has a firm release date. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles will return to a big screen near you on 20th December 2024. Fun fact for film fans - that's the same day as Avatar 3, the sequel to the upcoming Avatar sequel that's not even out yet. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Off Topic: Curious and Interesting Words is a dictionary that sends you on a journey
    I wish I could tell you that the older and more tedious I get the more I see the appeal of dictionaries. In truth, I was born old and tedious, and I have loved dictionaries forever. I am unable to escape their gravity - I open the book to look up one thing, and then something else draws my eye, and that leads to something else, and something else... This is particularly true of the dictionaries I love best: speciality dictionaries. Do you have a Rhyming Dictionary? You must get one - it's a life-changer, a kind stranger, a park ranger. Ditto a dictionary of historical terms, a dictionary of etymology. Spread out: I have a Who's Who in Ancient Egypt which is pretty well thumbed. And my favourite? The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Words, by George Stone Saussy III. Check that last part. All dictionaries are wilful and secretly partisan - you can't really have language and definitions without this stuff. But a dictionary that's the work of a single person is going to be something very special. This is as much a way of being as it is a dictionary - it's a private guide to what a certain individual finds noteworthy and worth preserving. I open its pages and it's like being on the receiving end of one of those long transatlantic phone calls from the years before Skype. It's a gas. Read more  ( 14 min )
    Genshin Impact - an anime open world not done with expanding
    At the start, it was easy for critics to write off Genshin Impact as a shameless Breath of the Wild clone from a country with a reputation for knock-offs. Even when it did gain a following to everyone's surprise, coverage also had a hand-wringing focus on its gacha mechanics. But defying expectations, the free-to-play open world action RPG has gone from strength to strength, raking over $2 billion in its first year of launch on mobile alone, and becoming the most talked about game on Twitter in 2021. Its crossover success to Western markets has established developer miHoYo (or HoYoverse, as it's internationally rebranded itself these days) as a vanguard of the Chinese new wave in big budget game development. Gone are the days of hearing people refer to this game by its dismissive nickname Breath of the Waifu. Now, people are searching for Genshin-likes instead (and Diluc and Zhongli mains can attest the game has its share of husbandos too). But with an estimated 500+ hours already invested, almost a dozen maxed characters and still so much more to do, it's hard for me to want to play anything else. This is especially true as we approach the 3.0 update, which aims to not only introduce the new tropic-and-desert region of Sumeru but also a new element, Dendro, to mix up combat. But what about the uninitiated looking to drop into the fantasy world of Teyvat for the first time? At first, Genshin Impact may feel like another victim of feature creep, with updates that have added a city reputation system, your own Animal Crossing-style island getaway, and even a dating sim mini-game with some of its delectable cast. Fortunately, these features gradually unlock as you play and increase your adventure rank, so as not to overwhelm you off the bat. For the first 15-20 hours, you can treat it as an old-fashioned single-player action RPG as you play a mysterious traveller on a quest to find your missing sibling, before getting caught up in a crisis involving a dragon gone berserk. Read more  ( 20 min )
    Super Punch-Out!!'s secret two-player mode uncovered after 28 years
    Purveyors of video game secrets have something new to get excited about following the recent fuss around Nier: Automata's ultimately rather underwhelming church mystery; a hidden two-player mode has been uncovered in Super Punch-Out!!, 28 years after its release on the SNES. As explained by Unlisted Cheats - a Twitter account specialising in video game "secrets nobody heard about until now" - the discovery was made "while doing some request work" on Super Punch-Out and has revealed two additional cheat codes on top of the sound test and Japanese name input cheats previously known. The first cheat unlocks a stage select screen enabling players to take on any fighter, including Special Circuit fighters, in a free single match. This can be accessed from Super Punch-Out's title screen by holding down Y and R on Controller 2 and then hitting A or Start on Controller 1. Read more  ( 15 min )
  • Open

    Two Point Campus from the dev of Two Point Hospital out now
    Two Point Campus is the next game from Two Point Studios and SEGA, the same lot that gave us Two Point Hospital. It comes with Native Linux support and works on the Steam Deck right away.  ( 4 min )
    W4 Games formed to help developers using Godot Engine
    Here's a very interesting development for the world of the open source Godot Engine, as a new company named W4 Games has been formed to push it further than ever before.  ( 4 min )
    What if Pong had 'lore, special moves & gay aliens'? You get ZONERS
    The developer of ZONERS certainly had an interesting pitch when introducing their new game over email and it turns out it's pretty fun.  ( 4 min )
    Emberbane is a pixel action-platformer inspired by Avatar the Last Airbender
    The popular Avatar the Last Airbender series continues to have an influence on game developers, with Emberbane being announced as an upcoming pixel action-platformer with combat revolving around a mixture of four elements with unique abilities.  ( 4 min )
    Justin Wack and the Big Time Hack is another fun looking point and clicker coming
    Do you love your point and click adventures? We have another to highlight with Justin Wack and the Big Time Hack that will have Native Linux support.  ( 4 min )
    Adventure game Nine Noir Lives seems to let you lick everything
    Nine Noir Lives is an upcoming point and click adventure game that follows feline private investigator Cuddles Nutterbutter. A new brief trailer is out, showing off a very important game mechanic.  ( 4 min )
    Steam Deck gets a performance fix available in Preview
    After the recent SteamOS 3.3 release, it came with some unfortunate performance issues for the Steam Deck that Valve continues to address.  ( 4 min )
  • Open

    AMD Details "SQUIP" Side Channel Vulnerability For Zen's Execution Unit Scheduler
    In addition to Intel's busy Patch Tuesday, AMD today made public CVE-2021-46778 that university researchers have dubbed the "SQUIP" attack as a side channel vulnerability affecting the execution unit scheduler across Zen 1/2/3 processors...  ( 5 min )
    Linux Kernel Patched For "PBRSB" After Intel eIBRS CPUs Found To Be Insufficient
    Today's busy patch Tuesday for Intel continues with the Linux kernel getting mitigated for EIBRS Post-barrier Return Stack Buffer (PBRSB). This PBRSB is the latest handling on the "CPU vulnerability nightmares front", the pull request calls it...  ( 5 min )
    Intel Releases New "20220809" CPU Microcode For Latest Security Vulnerability
    As part of today's "Patch Tuesday", Intel has made a new round of security vulnerabilities public -- including a new processor advisory that affects their latest Xeon Scalable and Core wares resulting in new CPU microcode being required...  ( 4 min )
    Apple M2 vs. AMD Rembrandt vs. Intel Alder Lake Linux Benchmarks
    Given the significant interest from Phoronix readers about how well Apple M2 performs on Linux, especially after it was noted Linus Torvalds using an Apple MacBook Air M2, here are the first of many benchmark articles to come looking at how well Apple's M2 performs under Linux against Intel/AMD x86_64 competition. The new Apple MacBook Air with M2 was benchmarked for this article against the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U "Rembrandt" Zen 3+, Intel Core i7 1280P "Alder Lake P", an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX "Cezanne H", and also for reference an Apple Mac Mini M1 model. All of these laptops were tested under Arch Linux (x86_64) and the Arch-based Asahi Linux (M1/M2).  ( 5 min )
    NVIDIA Publishes 73k Lines Worth Of 3D Header Files For Fermi Through Ampere GPUs
    In addition to NVIDIA being busy working on transitioning to an open-source GPU kernel driver, yesterday they made a rare public open-source documentation contribution... NVIDIA quietly published 73k lines worth of header files to document the 3D classes for their Fermi through current-generation Ampere GPUs!..  ( 5 min )
    AMD Releases AOMP 15.0-3 Compiler
    AMD engineers have released an updated version of AOMP, their LLVM/Clang downstream that carries the company's latest patches around OpenMP offloading to Radeon GPUs...  ( 5 min )
    Renewed Work Around GNOME 30-bit Deep Color Frame-Buffer Support
    Going back years has been an effort to get 30-bit deep color support on the GNOME desktop under Wayland. Ubuntu and others have been interested in getting 30-bit color support working nicely for the Linux desktop, but while that milestone hasn't yet been crossed, thankfully there is some renewed work in that direction...  ( 5 min )
    FreeBSD In Q2-2022: More Than 30k Ports, Driver Improvements, Better Linux Compatibility
    The FreeBSD project has published their latest quarterly status report highlighting the advancements made to this open-source BSD operating system...  ( 4 min )
    Linux 6.0 Allows Setting The Hostname Via New "hostname=" Parameter
    A patch coming about earlier this year allows setting the system's hostname before user-space starts by way of the hostname= kernel parameter. That patch has now landed as part of Andrew Morton's accumulated changes for Linux 6.0...  ( 4 min )
    Linux 6.0 Promotes Its H.265/HEVC User-Space API To Stable
    With the Linux 6.0 multimedia subsystem changes, the H.265/HEVC user-space API is now being considered stable...  ( 4 min )
  • Open

    Easy Come Easy Golf - Everybody's Golf-gänget tycks ha mer golf på gång
    Lutar åt mer lättsamt golfande?  ( 6 min )
    Internationella kattdagen firas av Stalker 2-teamet – till vår fasa!
    Sov gott i natt.  ( 6 min )
    Gotta go 2024! Sonic the Hedgehog 3 spikar biodatum
    Ännu en biosuccé?  ( 6 min )
    FZ Play värmer upp inför skolstarten med Two Point Campus
    Närvaro: obligatorisk!  ( 5 min )
    Få seriösa Skyrim-fiender! Mod ger spelet Shadow of Mordors nemesis-system
    Hämnden är ljuv - och ett måste.  ( 6 min )
    Få seriösa Skyrim-fiender! Mod ger spelet Shadow or Mordors nemesis-system
    Hämnden är ljuv - och ett måste.  ( 6 min )
    Ny Elden Ring-patch balanserar om i multiplayer
    Version 1.06 ute nu.  ( 9 min )
    4 500 spel är Steam Deck-kompatibla
    Mängden spel ökar i rasande takt.  ( 6 min )
    Embark släpper shootern Project Discovery före Arc Raiders
    Patrick Söderlunds studio har två actionspel på gång.  ( 6 min )
    GTA 6 ska höja den kreativa ribban för hela underhållningsbranschen
    Utvecklingen rullar på, säger chefen för Rockstars moderbolag.  ( 6 min )
    Uncharted-filmen finns nu på Netflix i USA – och gör succé
    Den mest sedda filmen just nu på plattformen.  ( 6 min )
    Marvel's Midnight Suns försenas ytterligare en gång
    Firaxis behöver fila mer på sitt "största spel någonsin".  ( 6 min )
    Hemligt 2-spelarläge upptäckt i Super Punch-Out
    Det tog bara 28 år att upptäcka.  ( 6 min )
    Dice-veteranernas skjutarspel Arc Raiders försenas till 2023
    Patrick Söderlund & Co behöver mer tid.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Dragon Quest Builders 2 showed us the potential of Minecraft clones – so where's Dragon Quest Builders 3?
    It’s not uncommon for those who would consider themselves ex-Minecraft players to feel the game’s siren call float to the back of their mind every once in a while, launching that nostalgia-driven urge to start over in a new world. Whether it’s returning to survival mode to aimlessly punch trees, or finally committing to recreating Hobbiton using creative mode and a rich suite of mods, there’s no denying that Minecraft has an enduring appeal and a malleable blend of freedom and structure that will keep people coming back to it indefinitely. I’m no stranger to the allure of Minecraft, but recently I’ve found myself drawn back to its peculiar, spiky-haired cousin: Dragon Quest Builders 2, which just might be the best thing that Minecraft has ever inspired. It's a game that serves as proof that there is still rich, untapped potential in mixing Minecraft’s best qualities with other genres' and aesthetics. Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a prime example of where such ambition can take us: an undeniably charming game that shows both reverence to the franchise it’s based on and the art of creativity within games itself. Across the game’s lengthy single player story and beyond, Builders 2 frequently acknowledges the kind of player that it attracts, encouraging you to ignore the boundaries of its intricate community-building simulator in favor of building whatever the hell you’d like on your own terms. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Udyr rework revealed in full, as League of Legends' beloved shaman gets a visual and kit upgrade
    As many League of Legends fans will already know, Udyr is getting a massive rework to both his visuals and his in-game abilities. A beloved character in the hearts of the community, including early adopters of the super-popular MOBA and competitive players alike, this massive undertaking came at the request of a community poll earlier in the year. As such, we’ve broken down every change coming to Udyr with insights from the development team responsible sprinkled throughout. With hopes of preserving his original style, modernising his look, and converging his lore to recent events, has the team reformed Udyr for the better? Let's find out! The new Udyr is a Juggernaut, intended primarily for jungle, but top is an alternative kept in mind with this rework. While he has a collection of revamped abilities to use in game, he’ll still be charging headfirst into fights and switching stances to apply different effects. In this way, he’ll feel very familiar to pre-existing Udyr players on live servers right now. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Two Point Campus review: A zany management sim that lovingly develops its predecessors’ legacy
    If you’ve ever had the insatiable urge to run your own college campus full of scientists, clowns, or even medieval knights, Two Point Campus finally grants you the ability. In typical management simulation fashion, you are the omnipotent being reining over various campuses and determining the fate of hundreds of students. While this may seem like a lot of pressure – keeping everyone happy and students’ grades high – Two Point Campus strikes a perfect balance; it’s easy to pick up and play, while incredibly difficult to master. Anyone familiar with the predecessor, Two Point Hospital, will know that the lucrative three-star rating is hard to come by, but it’s so rewarding when you do finally reach that milestone. In his preview, assistant editor Alex Donaldson argued that Two Point Hospital is a worthy successor to an all-time great; the all-time great being Theme Hospital. While I’d love to agree, I never played Bullfrog’s classic. In fact, I don’t like hospitals much at all, and even Two Point Hospital – despite all of its charm – felt incredibly lost on me. However, Two Point Campus has now strutted along and opened its doors, and I’ve finally been able to appreciate these games for what they’re worth. Read more  ( 20 min )
    Pac-Man munching his way onto the silver screen with a live action movie in development
    As if the news of Sonic getting a third movie wasn’t enough, it appears that Pac-Man will also be in receipt of its very own live-action movie. Pac-Man is a video game series first conceived in 1980 by Namco, that went on to become somewhat of a social phenomenon. As a result, Pac-Man isn’t a complete stranger to the world of television and cinema, having already been privy to two series from ABC and Disney XD respectively. First reported by The Hollywood Reporter, a new Pac-Man project is in the works with Bandai Namco Entertainment and Wayfarer Studios on board. The movie itself is reported to be based on Chuck Williams’ (of Lightbeam Entertainment) original idea, who was also an associate producer on 2020’s Sonic the Hedgehog. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Valorant nerfs Chamber and updates its engine in patch 5.03
    Valorant is in receipt of its latest patch today, and players globally are going to no doubt be commiserating the current meta as Chamber is drastically nerfed. Chamber was first introduced to Valorant back in November 2021, and the Sentinel Agent certainly went down a treat. With a pistol and a sniper built into his kit of abilities, Chamber has perhaps been one of the most offensive defense specialists in the roster. So, understandably, he quickly became a top pick amongst ranked players. However, Valorant has noticed that its players have managed to master Chamber quite efficiently by now. So much so, that his strengths are overshadowing his weaknesses, and counter-playing his kit isn’t as effective as the developer once hoped. Read more  ( 16 min )
    GTA 6 to set "creative benchmark for all entertainment," says Strauss Zelnick
    By this point, we all know that Rockstar is working on the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series. Per a development update from the studio back in February, GTA 6 is "well underway." But the shape of the game is currently unclear: there have been many rumours about what it will (and won't) include, but the fact remains that neither Rockstar, nor publisher Take-Two, have given us any hint of what to expect from the game. Enter Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two. Known for making quite incendiary comments – like telling us we're all ready to pay for $70 games, saying backwards compatibility doesn't matter, and so on – the anti-union CEO made some on-brand comments during last night's earnings presentation. Read more  ( 17 min )
    The Diofield Chronicle hands-on preview: Good tabletop vibes feel slightly plastic
    If you’ve ever listened to J-Rock, you know that Japanese musicians couldn’t care less about genres. There’s a radio rock intro, then they’ll rap for a bit, then do a bit of a shout and scream before doing it all again three times. The world of new Square Enix strategy RPG The DioField Chronicle is a bit like that, but for English history. You’ve got medieval knights collecting their kit from 17th century plague doctors, before going out to fight stovepipe-hatted cockneys straight out of the Victorian workhouse at the behest of tweed-jacketed gentlemen. Then some skeletons turn up with a couple of trolls in suits of armour. It goes places. Read more  ( 18 min )
    ARC Raiders also won’t be coming in 2022
    ARC Raiders, the co-op shooter that's been turning heads for its impressive visuals, has been pushed back to 2023. ARC Raiders is Embark Studios' first project, a team made up of former DICE and Frostbite Engine developers. You probably already guessed a delay was on the cards, considering public tests have yet to begin for the game, not to mention the fact Embark has been quiet on the news and gameplay footage front. Well, the developer made it official today. In a Twitter announcement, Embark said ARC Raiders has been delayed to 2023. The extra time will be used to "expand the experience." Seeing as there's plenty we still don't know about the game, Embark added that more details will arrive once tests with players begin - though it's not clear when that's going to be. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Elden Ring patch 1.06 brings gifts for heavy weapon users, and White Mask Varre fans who don't care for PvP
    FromSoftware rolled out a new patch for Elden Ring earlier this morning. Patch 1.06 is not among the game's largest so far, but it does bring a fair few tweaks to the game's mechanics. Alongside that, and the usual set of bug fixes, the patch also adjusts White Mask Varre’s questline, making it possible to finish it without having to invade other players. Update 1.06's first new feature is expanding the reach of summon signs. Players can now send their signs to multiple summoning pools, making it easier for them to get a match. You can even do this for "distant areas," but that doesn't include the Mohgwyn Palace. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Sonic 3 movie is set to launch December 2024
    Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will be coming to cinemas December 24, 2024. This news comes via a Twitter post from Sonic voice actor Ben Shwartz, who took to the social media platform to announce the news with a quick gif and ample excitement. This comes following a very successful box office return from Sonic The Hedgehog 2, which crossed over the $400 million mark before its run was done (check out this Nintendo Life article for more info). It seems that as though Sonic’s journey through the world of family-friendly cinema is more of a marathon than a sprint. For those who didn’t watch the previous film, it was pretty good actually, seemingly breaking the curse of awful video game film movie adaptations that seemed an unavoidable barrier for other properties over the past few decades. Editor Alex Donaldson summed it up in their review of the film, writing: “It is ultimately a video game movie that has a heart, and with that heart comes a quality that bucks the trend and actually results in a video game movie you might want to watch a second time.” Read more  ( 16 min )
    Marvel’s Midnight Suns no longer has a release date, and last-gen versions are probably dead
    It's going to be a little bit longer before Marvel's Midnight Suns sees the light of day. The Firaxis strategy game – which was originally supposed to launch in March 2022 – will now release sometime during publisher 2K's current fiscal year, which ends in March 2023. “We have made the decision to move back the launch timing of Marvel’s Midnight Suns to ensure the teams at Firaxis Games and 2K deliver the best possible experience for our fans,” said the game's publisher in a press release before the Take-Two quarterly earnings call on August 8. “The title will launch later this fiscal year on Windows PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5." So, expect a new release date to land any time between November and the end of March 2023 (it'll likely be towards the latter end of that spectrum, let's be honest). Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Rykte: Nvidia Geforce RTX 4080 får samma effektuttag som RTX 3080
    Enligt Twitter-profilen "kopite7kimi" var tidigare specifikationer om 420 watt mycket generösa, varför det nya budet är 100 watt lägre.  ( 5 min )
    Batterimetallen litium kan giftklassas
    Litium-jon-batterier finns i elbilar, telefoner och datorer, men hanteringen kan komma att skärpas.  ( 6 min )
    Nvidia lovar prissänkningar efter missade omsättningsmål
    Den senaste kvartalsrapporten från Nvidia visar på ett sjunkande intresse för grafikkort för spel, något bolaget ska stävja med justerade priser.  ( 6 min )
    Intel släpper Arc Pro för professionella användare
    Arbetsstationer utan höga krav på beräkningskraft kan framöver bestyckas med Intels Arc-familj, där hårdvaruaccelererade funktioner lyfts som trumfkort.  ( 6 min )
    Snabbkoll: Vilken chassisida föredrar du?
    Vissa vill visa upp den stiliga hårdvaran för omvärlden, medan andra prioriterar låg ljudnivå eller extra luftflöde. Vilken sidopanel väljer du när valmöjlighet finns?  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Dogmatic
    No content preview
  • Open

    Untitled
    No content preview  ( 2 min )
  • Open

    7 Best Distributions Based on Fedora Linux
    Looking for Fedora derivatives? Here are best Fedora based Linux distributions.  ( 25 min )
  • Open

    Comic for 2022.08.09 - Kissing A Fish
    New Cyanide and Happiness Comic  ( 6 min )

  • Open

    Scientists hid encryption key for Wizard of Oz text in plastic molecules
    It's "a revolutionary scientific advance in molecular data storage and cryptography."  ( 7 min )
    28 years later, Super Punch-Out!!’s 2-player mode has been discovered
    Series' 2-player mode has been hidden behind simple button commands.  ( 6 min )
    Big Tech just got one step closer to squashing key US antitrust bill
    Debate over the American Innovation and Choice Online Act will resume this fall.  ( 7 min )
    Crypto-driven GPU crash makes Nvidia miss Q2 projections by $1.4 billion
    Cheaper GPUs are good for gamers but bad for Nvidia's bottom line.  ( 5 min )
    Excel esports on ESPN show world the pain of format errors
    Where one sheet link can be the difference between success or elimination.  ( 5 min )
    Peter Beck explains why Electron may only ever launch 10-15 times a year
    "Our cadence today is 100 percent driven by market demand."  ( 5 min )
    Locked-in syndrome and the misplaced presumption of misery
    Surveys suggest most LIS patients are happy. Researchers want that more widely understood.  ( 6 min )
    Musk challenges Twitter CEO to debate—Twitter will stick to its lawsuit instead
    Debate will happen at the Delaware Court of Chancery.  ( 5 min )
    Google, still reeling from an earlier ruling, sues Sonos over voice patents
    After losing a volume control lawsuit, Google hopes it can get leverage over Sonos.  ( 5 min )
    Fitbits will soon lose the ability to sync with computers
    Fitbit points PC syncers to Pandora, Deezer subscriptions for downloading music.  ( 5 min )
    58% of human infectious diseases can be worsened by climate change
    77,000 studies were scoured to map the pathways.  ( 5 min )
    Tesla faces new probes into motorbike deaths, false advertising
    NHTSA is investigating bike deaths as California says Tesla statements are "untrue."  ( 5 min )
    Rumors, delays, and early testing suggest Intel’s Arc GPUs are on shaky ground
    Possible outcomes run the gamut from "more delays" to outright cancellation.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Real-time deepfakes can be beaten by a sideways glance
    For now at least, until data catches up Real-time deepfake videos, heralded as the bringers of a new age of internet uncertainty, appear to have a fundamental flaw: They can't handle side profiles.…  ( 6 min )
    California accuses Tesla of false advertising over Autopilot
    DMV goes after manufacturer and dealer licenses The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) last month filed two complaints against Tesla alleging that the car marker violated state law by misrepresenting that its vehicles can drive autonomously.…  ( 5 min )
    Qualcomm, GlobalFoundries double down on US chip production
    The line for chip susidies and tax breaks is getting longer by the minute Qualcomm says it is doubling investments in US chip manufacturer GlobalFoundries in a bid to secure additional wafer capacity with government money on the table.…  ( 5 min )
    Twilio customer data exposed after its staffers got phished
    Comms giant says several other firms targeted in 'sophisticated attack' Twilio confirmed a breach of the communication giant's network and accessed "a limited number" of customer accounts after tricking some employees into falling for a phishing attack.…  ( 4 min )
    Microsoft tightens Edge security for less visited websites
    We're pretty sure that doesn't mean it's safe to click on sketchy popups Microsoft wants to make it safer for Edge users to browse and visit unfamiliar websites by automatically applying stronger security settings.…  ( 5 min )
    Tiers before bedtime: AWS updates Lambda pricing structure
    'Time to update your spreadsheets,' expert says of 'inscrutable' changes AWS has introduced tiered pricing for its Lambda serverless computing platform, claiming this will save on monthly costs for customers who use it to operate large workloads. It will, however, likely add to the complexity of estimating costs for many developers hoping to run a project on AWS.…  ( 5 min )
    Atari Video Computer System returns in Lego form
    Just as square as you remember but minus ET, the worst game of all time Lego has followed up its Nintendo Entertainment System retro throwback with one celebrating the Atari Video Computer System (VCS).…  ( 4 min )
    Ready for the Linux 6.0 splashdown? Here are some of the highlights
    Don't panic if you're not a fan of big changes… it's 5.20 by another name The next version of the Linux kernel is jumping version numbers, with some performance gains, but it's not a major change all the same.…  ( 4 min )
    Clean up orbit first, then we can think about space factories, says FCC
    It's hard to make things out there when dust-sized particles can destroy them The US Federal Communications Commission is looking at how it can help kickstart manufacturing in space, but said orbital debris needs to be addressed first.…  ( 5 min )
    Nvidia banks $1.32b inventory charge as PC market slows
    Gaming product sell-through projection declines but datacenter division sales soar The slowdown in retail spending is taking a toll on Nvidia, which is reporting hefty double digit declines in its Gaming unit, and charges of $1.32 billion, primarily related to inventory and the wider economy.…  ( 4 min )
    How TSMC killed 450mm wafers for fear of Intel, Samsung
    You can be a big fish in a big ocean or a small fish in a tiny pond with two leviathans.. how times changed A former TSMC executive has described how a collaborative effort towards 450mm (18-inch) wafers for manufacturing chips was halted when the company realized it would put them in direct competition with Intel and Samsung.…  ( 6 min )
    Google hit with lawsuit for dropping free Workspace apps
    Free Forever, or Free Until We Decide It Isn't policy criticised in filing A putative class action lawsuit has been filed against Google in California by early adopters who are unhappy about the ads company's decision to demand fees for its Workspace productivity suite.…  ( 4 min )
    Arm still jewel in crown as parent SoftBank nurses record $23.5b hit
    Stock market losses lead to write-downs at Vision Fund, but chip designer IPO a ray of light Chip designer Arm booked record revenues for the Q1 ended June 30 and was one of the bright spots in an otherwise loss-heavy start to fiscal 2023 for Japanese parent SoftBank's Vision Fund.…  ( 4 min )
    Slack leaked hashed passwords from its servers for years
    Users who created shared invitation links for their workspace had login details slip out among encrypted traffic Did Slack send you a password reset link last week? The company has admitted to accidentally exposing the hashed passwords of workspace users.…  ( 4 min )
    Google's ChromeOS Flex turned my old MacBook into new frustrations
    Google says this is ‘modern’ computing – if so it feels like a backward step I spend a lot of time in a browser – for years I've used half a dozen pinned tabs to provide easy access to web apps like The Register's CMS and TweetDeck. But when I tried Google's browser-centric ChromeOS Flex I immediately lamented the lack of apps and came to despise Chrome.…  ( 6 min )
    GitLab versus The Zombie Repos: An old plot needs a new twist
    Git back, git back, git back to where your files belong GitLab is chewing on life's gristle. The problem, we hear, is that deadbeat freeloaders are sucking up its hosting lifeforce. The company's repo hive is clogged with zombie projects, untouched for years but still plugged into life support. It's costing us a million bucks a year, sighed GiLab's spreadsheet wranglers, and for what? …  ( 6 min )
    Yeah, we'll just take that first network handshake. What could possibly go wrong?
    Almost taking the fall for another person's mistake Who, Me?  Brickbats and bouquets are the way of things in the world of IT. Consider today's Who, Me? entry where our hero nearly fell on his sword when a bug bounty might have been more appropriate.…  ( 5 min )
    Taiwanese iPhone supplier Pegatron quashes China blockade report
    Company declares operations are normal and rebuts allegation Beijing crimped component deliveries Taiwanese electronics manufacturer and Apple supplier Pegatron has issued a statement on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSWE) to refute reports it was forced to suspend operations after Chinese authorities stopped supplies reaching its facilities.…  ( 4 min )
    India to revisit hardware incentives after struggling to move manufacturers out of China
    Minister laments Dell, HPE and pals have the market locked up and little incentive to change India will tweak the incentive scheme it offers to manufacturers of enterprise hardware after disappointing uptake.…  ( 4 min )
    Dark Utilities C2 service draws thousands of cyber criminals
    Nascent platform provides miscreants an easier and cheaper way to launch remote access, DDoS, and other attacks A platform that makes it easier for cyber criminals to establish command-and-control (C2) servers has already attracted 3,000 users since launching earlier this year, and will likely expand its client list in the coming months.…  ( 6 min )
    India’s latest rocket flies but payloads don't prosper
    Satellites end up in 'unusable' orbit India’s small satellite launch vehicle (SSLV) made a spectacular debut launch on Sunday, but the mission fell short of overall success when two satellites were inserted into the incorrect orbit, rendering them space junk.…  ( 4 min )
    China allows robo taxis – without backup drivers – in parts of two major cities
    Baidu gets the fare in Chongqing and Wuhan China has issued two licences for robot taxi operations, according to local tech giant Baidu.…  ( 4 min )
    India proposes increased power to vet tech mergers
    Chinese phone makers' tax deals probed; PayPal back in Indonesia; Boeing seeks sustainability in Japan; and more Asia In brief  India's parliament will this week debate a bill that would see the nation's competition regulator add officers with technology industry expertise to its ranks, and gain the power to review and veto takeovers.…  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Americans: the impeccable Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop is going cheap at Best Buy
    I don't spend a ton of time testing gaming laptops these days, but one of my recent favourites was the Zephyrus G14. This laptop is slim and compact, yet sports a brilliant 14-inch 2560x1600 120Hz display, a powerful RX 6700S graphics card and a top-end Ryzen 9 6900HS processor. This is backed with a 1TB NVMe SSD and 16GB of DDR5 RAM (!!), an impressive loadout that uses basically the fastest and latest-gen components you can fit into a laptop of this size. Today Best Buy in the US are doing a great price on this spec of the Zephyrus G14, charging $1399.99 for it rather than the launch price of $1649.99 - a $250 reduction. That's the best price we've seen for this model and an awesome deal on a compact yet powerful all-AMD laptop. Read more  ( 16 min )
    AMD's top graphics card is £215 cheaper right now at Scan
    Graphics cards are falling in price rapidly, and nowhere is this more true than on the bleeding-edge end of the market. After seeing discounts on AMD's first 6000-series graphics cards last month, we're now also seeing deep cuts to the more recent 6X50 models - including the subject of this piece, the Radeon RX 6950 XT. This particular card is the very fastest that AMD make, and offers rasterised performance on par with Nvidia's RTX 3090 and 3090 Ti. Today, it's been discounted to £850 at Scan, a big reduction from its original UK RRP of £1065 earlier this year. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Despot's Game: Dystopian Army Builder battles out of early access in September
    Roguelike autobattler Despot's Game: Dystopian Army Builder is almost ready to make its way out of early access. The full launch will be coming on September 15th, and bring a handful of improvements to its mass labyrinth escape. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Spelunky 2 is the perfect scientific measurement of fatigue
    You might remember that I couldn’t beat Spelunky 2's first stage, no matter how hard I tried. Well, I'm proud to announce that my fortunes have since changed and that I've bested it. I should say "we", as my achievement was aided by a co-op pal, and the only person on Earth patient enough to accompany such a terrible Spelunker. We even reached the first boss, and the level after that! Before we both got splatted by an anti-gravity zombie-puppet-that-lives-underwater. Aside from my – our – achievements, I learned that the game is a perfect measurement of fatigue. Where rulers calculate distance or Ollie's highly scientific WIPERS precipitation system measured the best rain in games, Spelunky 2 is the ultimate tool for accurately determining just how tired someone is. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Activision Blizzard announce Call Of Duty showcase, Modern Warfare 2 beta
    Activision Blizzard have announced a reveal event focused on the upcoming Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as well as what's next for Warzone. The showcase, called Call Of Duty: Next, will be on September 15th, and will be followed by an open beta for Modern Warfare 2. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Our cycling tour of PC gaming is complete, read it all here
    After five weeks, 12 posts, 14 games, and 11,146 words, my cycling tour of PC gaming ended on Friday. I've crossed the active warzones of GTA Online and PUBG, stunted down murderous descents in extreme sports games, tried to learn serious bike race tactics in strategy games, gone for a weird ride in a walking simulator, and even needed to ride my real bike for a game powered by Strava. For your convenience and enjoyment, that's now all gathered here with some bonus bike thoughts. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Turbo Golf Racing early access review: a great new motorsport takes us one step closer to the car olympics
    Is it lazy to describe Turbo Golf Racing as ‘Rocket League if the cars were playing golf instead of football?' A bit, yes. But it’s also largely accurate. Up to eight players race across a track, ramming their boost-enabled car into their huge futuristic golf ball to send it flying forwards until (depending on your skill or luck) it flies/rolls/plops anticlimactically into the big hole at the end. It’s golf, sort of, but fast, demanding, and often unpredictable. You don’t even have to wear silly trousers while playing it, but that’s just my personal choice. Of course, it’s not quite so simple as hitting your ball forward and relying on the videogame gods to deem your ball worthy of reaching the goal before everybody else’s. There are 30 courses of varying length and complexity, and none of them are a simple drag race to the end. There are ramps, twists, turns, and plenty of obstacles. While the very shortest courses are pretty frictionless (I’ve won a few in under 20 seconds), the longest ones are practically begging you to make agonising mistakes. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Screenshot Saturday Mondays: tentacle typing and scultping spaceships
    Every weekend, indie devs show off current work on Twitter's #screenshotsaturday tag. And every Monday, I bring you a selection of these snaps and clips. This week, my eye has been caught by a surreal RPG, a squirrel with a gun, a typical tentacle horror, handcrafted spaceships, and plenty more interesting indies. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Bandai Namco seems to be teasing Tekken 8
    Bandai Namco have released a teaser for...well, something Tekken related, although exactly what is open to interpretation. The brief trailer, shown yesterday at Evo 2022, replays the moment from Tekken 1 in which Kazuya Mishima drops his father's body off a cliff, before cutting to a much more modern looking Kazuya and the simple invocation: "GET READY". Read more  ( 16 min )
    Capcom seems to be teasing Tekken 8
    Capcom have released a teaser for...well, something Tekken related, although exactly what is open to interpretation. The brief trailer, shown yesterday at Evo 2022, replays the moment from Tekken 1 in which Kazuya Mishima drops his father's body off a cliff, before cutting to a much more modern looking Kazuya and the simple invocation: "GET READY". Read more  ( 16 min )
    Frantic possession puzzler Demons Happened deserves more attention
    Demons happened. There's your plot. More specifically, they apparently happened to everyone except you, but the process still messed with your tv, so there's nothing for it but to fight your way through them to some kind of solution. Demons Happened is a curious blend of very rapid action faintly reminiscent of Hotline Miami, and an Abe's Oddysee type of puzzle game. Such disparate genres don't often blend as well as this, and I'm disappointed that it hasn't got a bigger reception. Read more  ( 14 min )
    Street Fighter 6 announces newcomer Kimberly and the return of Juri
    Capcom have announced a pair of characters who will be squaring up to battle in Street Fighter 6. A trailer premiered at Evo showed off the moves of returning brawler Juri and newcomer Kimberly. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Firaxis developed Marvel's Midnight Suns has been delayed again
    2K has announced a second delay for developer Firaxis' Marvel-themed tactical RPG Midnight Suns. The title will no longer launch this October as previously annouced and will instead now arrive on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC at some point before the end of 2K's current fiscal year. Other versions are now "TBA". Announced last August, Marvel's Midnight Suns is superhero strategy game that - drawing inspiration from the Midnight Sons comic book run of the mid-90s - follows a roster of familiar faces, including the Avengers, on an adventure that blends card-battling turn-based combat and Fire-Emblem-style relationship building. It was originally due to launch this March, but last November saw Firaxis and 2K make the decision to push its release back toward the end of 2022 in order to "add more story, cinematics and overall polish". June then bought the news that the end was almost in sight, with the game receiving a launch date of 7th October. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Pac-Man is getting a live-action movie adaptation
    With Hollywood's hunger for video game adaptations still seemingly insatiable, it's now Bandai Namco's turn to get in on the action, shunting Pac-Man - arguing gaming's most iconic mascot - onto the the big screen in a live-action movie adaptation. That's according to the Hollywood Reporter, which says Bandai Namco is teaming up with Wayfarer Studios (the company behind Disney+ biopic Clouds) to bring Pac-Man to cinemas. Details are limited right now, but the movie is said to be based on an original idea by Chuck Williams, who'll produce alongside Tim Kwok on behalf of Lightbeam Entertainment. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Fall Guys' Sonic the Hedgehog event starts this week according to latest leak
    Fall Guys' latest Sonic the Hedgehog collaboration will kick off later this week according to a new leak, with Dr Robotnik and Super Sonic outfits also on the way. A new Sonic/Fall Guys collaboration was, of course, officially announced during June's Sonic Central livestream. However, all Sega was saying at the time was that the game's previously released Sonic and Knuckles skins would be returning this August alongside a new addition - Tails - as part of the hedgehog's 30th Anniversreay celbrations. Since then, data miners have discovered Fall Guys developer Mediatonic and Sega might have something a little more substantial planned than mere skins, with a special Green Hill Zone inspired stage having recently been discovered squirrelled away in the files. Read more  ( 15 min )
    COMPOUND is a vibrant and exciting VR rogue-lite that embraces the 90s
    As someone who was brought up on a diet of 90s FPS games, I'm easily enticed by modern video games that embrace the aesthetic of that era. This is exactly why I purchased the Early Access build of Compound a couple of years ago and why, on this week's episode of VR Corner, I'm showcasing the final 1.0 release of the game. Compound is a vibrant, exciting and suprisingly punchy VR rogue-lite that features gorgeous retro graphics and a whole lot of fun. Check it out in action in the video below for 30 minutes of totally radical gameplay, yo! Read more  ( 15 min )
    Embark Studios' Arc Raiders delayed into 2023
    Arc Raiders, from new developer Embark Studios, has been delayed into 2023. The co-op sci-fi shooter was revealed at last year's Game Awards, but the release has been pushed back due to the ambitions of the team, led by former EA exec Patrick Söderlund. "We've made the decision to delay Arc Raiders to 2023," reads a statement on Twitter. Read more  ( 15 min )
    FIFA 23 fuses Pro Clubs and Volta progression
    FIFA 23 fuses Pro Clubs and Volta progression, EA Sports has confirmed. Pro Clubs mode, a competitive 11v11 mode in which players control a single player as part of a club, has always been separate from Volta, a mode seen as a spiritual successor of sorts to the tricks and customisation-focused FIFA Street series. In a presentation attended by Eurogamer, EA Sports developers insisted both Pro Clubs and Volta fit together. Read more  ( 15 min )
    MultiVersus dataminer unearths potential Battle Pass sharing feature
    A potential feature which allows players to share their battle pass progress may come to Warner Bros.' MultiVersus in the future. That's according to AisulMV on Twitter, who found that a 'Find a Battle Pass Partner' screen existed within the game's files (thanks, VGC). AisulMV stated this feature was for "battle pass linking", and may be introduced alongside season one (which, in case you missed it, has been delayed). Read more  ( 15 min )
    DF Direct Weekly on Kratos' comedic Xbox debut - and a memory boost for Series S
    Welcome to the latest edition of DF Direct Weekly, which as the name continues to suggest, is our weekly news show where the team discuss what's new in the world of gaming and gaming technology. Veering at full pelt into the silly season, we kick off this episode with the astonishing War Gods Zeus of Child, or God of Warning as it's known on what can laughingly be called the game's title screen. War Gods ZoA was a essentially a shortlived homebrew game of sorts that sneaked onto the Xbox Store last week via the Creators' Collection, an unmoderated 'free for all' that essentially allows anyone to publish to PC and Xbox platforms. We had a few lighthearted requests for a full DF tech analysis so that's how we kick off this week's Direct, with a look at this abomination of a release (thankfully now deleted) running on ALL Xbox platforms. Spoilers: none can sustain a locked 60 frames per second! There's also discussion of the news that Xbox Series S has more memory given to developers via a new update to the GDK development environment. The question is, can the 'hundreds of megabytes' added to the existing 8GB of memory make a significant difference? Alex suggests that we may see more RT modes, with the new RAM allocated to the BVH structures required to trace rays. As a counterpoint, I suggest that with 12.5GB of RAM available to developers on PS5 (at least at launch - and it's 13.5GB on Xbox) there's still a yawning chasm between Series S and other systems. I think any extra RAM is useful but I'm not sure how much of a game-changer it will be. Why are developers being told that it's 'hundreds of megabytes' more memory and not a more concrete figure? Since recording the Direct, I've discovered that the amount of memory is somewhat fluid. There's a block of new memory available to all developers, but this can be augmented by disabling system level features the game may not be using, freeing up extra memory that otherwise wouldn't be used anyway. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Pokémon Go has an eye-popping 3D billboard for International Cat Day
    Pokémon Go has created an eye-catching 3D billboard to celebrate International Cat Day. The billboard is situated in Tokyo - specifically, outside Shinjuku station - and features Pikachu, Meowth and a variety of other cat Pokémon. Alternatively, you can just watch the billboard from the perfect angle yourself via the video below. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Splatoon 3 Nintendo Direct scheduled for this week
    A special Splatoon 3-focused Nintendo Direct will air this Wednesday, 10th August at 2pm UK time. Nintendo will offer a deep dive into its ink-based first-person shooter, with around 30 minutes of news set to be broadcast online. Splatoon 3 is set to launch worldwide on 9th September, though we've still only had details in dribs and drabs - such as this Turf War gameplay footage below. Read more  ( 14 min )
    Fatal Fury returns, after more than 20 years
    SNK's classic fighting series Fatal Fury is getting a new entry. Announced this weekend during Evo 2022, the as-yet untitled new Fatal Fury game will be the first for more than two decades. "New Fatal Fury / Garou is green-lit!" a teaser video proclaimed, alongside a glimpse of fresh artwork. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Street Fighter 6 introduces series' first female African American fighter
    At Evo 2022, Capcom introduced us all to Kimberly, the first female African American fighter to come to its Street Fighter series. Kimberly has a moveset that makes the most of "traditional ninja techniques" but with an added "urban twist". This includes a rather creative use of spray cans and her "trusty portable cassette player". As you would expect, this girl can pack a punch! Along with Kimberly, Juri will also make her return on Street Fighter 6's release. Apparently she will be "as wicked as ever", with a moveset that will be both new and yet still reassuringly familiar. You can see the ladies' full reveal below. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Blizzard battling Diablo 4 leaks
    Blizzard is attempting to scrub the internet of Diablo 4 leaked footage and screenshots, which were posted over the weekend. It seems these stem from an ongoing Friend and Family beta version of the game, which is labelled as a "private test build". Images and video currently circulating show the game's title screen, character customisation and other initial options, such as game creation and difficulty selection. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Bloodborne's gun parrying added to Elden Ring in new mod
    Anyone wishing Elden Ring had guns, well now there's a mod to fix that. The brand new mod from Garden of Eyes adds gun parrying to the game, inspired by the same mechanic in Bloodborne. The mod makes the Soldier's Pistol and Tarnished Bullets available in crafting, which can be shot to counter enemy attacks. Yes, that includes bosses like Malenia. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Elden Ring fan creates Walking Mausoleum out of Lego
    An Elden Ring fan has recreated one of the game's Walking Mausoleums out of Lego. The game has inspired plenty of fan art, but this really is something else. The builder, known as HoboSapient, shared their creation on reddit, spotted by PC Gamer. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Watch Master Chief and Doomguy duke it out in God of War
    Following Kratos' short-lived debut on the Microsoft store, Master Chief has arrived on Sony's territory to exact revenge. And he hasn't come alone. Doomguy has also joined the fray, just to beat up Master Chief. God of Console War footage was posted last week on YouTube by modder MarcosRC. Watch them go up against each other in the game's final battle below, with Master Chief replacing Kratos and Doomguy taking over for Baldur. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Blizzard responds to fan outcry after Overwatch 2 microtransaction debacle
    Blizzard is doing what it can to alleviate any concerns its community may have about microtransactions in Overwatch 2. This follows on from the news that the company is ditching its predecessor's lootboxes in favour of a seasonal battle pass and in-game store. As shared by Twitter user Portergauge, earlier this year Blizzard asked those taking part in the Overwatch 2 beta their thoughts on paying $45 for the new, highest rarity, skin in the upcoming sequel. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 beta out next month, including Grand Prix map
    The beta for Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is set to arrive next month across PlayStation, Xbox and PC, and will include a map on a grand-prix track. The Marina Bay Grand Prix map is inspired by the Singapore F1 street circuit of the same name, but with a much darker tone of course. The open beta will take place across two weekends, with PlayStation players able to access the first exclusively. Read more  ( 15 min )
    How Larian and Slitherine adapted Dungeons & Dragons and Warhammer
    There’s something brilliant about tabletop evenings with friends. My Thursday nights usually involve Dungeons & Dragons. Playing an Arcane Archer from the Feywild, I’m joined by a lively party that includes a Firbolg Druid, Minotaur Barbarian, Goblin Ranger, and Tiefling Warlock. We’ve had some fun adventures these last few years. Defeating mind flayers and a lich, fighting servants of Lolth, I got shanked on a bridge - many memorable moments. Never solved that mysterious case of stray arrows hitting teammates though, very peculiar. D&D inspires creativity, stimulating imaginations through the theatre of the mind. As a popular adaptation target, it left me wondering how game developers capture the spirit of these game. Nick Pechenin, lead systems designer at Larian Studios, happily answered my questions regarding Baldur’s Gate 3, which works off of D&D’s fifth edition. And I didn’t stop there. I can’t claim to be nearly as familiar with Warhammer as I am D&D, but I also approached publisher Slitherine over Black Lab Games’ Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector. Speaking with Battlesector's executive producer David Sharrock, he informs me, "When we were coming to the end of our plans for Battlestar Galactica Deadlock, the Slitherine and Black Lab teams sat down and had a chat about where we should go next. The Black Lab Games team were looking to make use of their skills in making great strategy games that look amazing and the Slitherine team had already been in discussions with Games Workshop about how to follow up previous 40k Strategy titles like Armageddon and Sanctus Reach." Read more  ( 20 min )
    Tekken 8 teased at Evo 2022, and now fans believe Game Awards reveal likely
    Capcom has shared a small Tekken 8 teaser at Evo 2022. This clip shows Kazuya carrying Heihachi up to the edge of a cliff and depositing him off the side, before smiling at the camera. The scene then cuts to a close-up of a new model of Kazuya doing the same smile, before the teaser tells us all to "get ready". You can see it for yourself at the end of the clip below. This brief preview of things to come was then quickly reshared by The Game Awards Twitter account. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Call of Duty Warzone 2 reveal next month in "era-defining" livestream event
    The mysterious new Call of Duty Warzone will be revealed next month on 15th September, as part of a presentation which publisher Activision has bombastically described as an "era-defining livestream franchise event". The livestream, dubbed Call of Duty Next, will also fully reveal the multiplayer mode featured in the upcoming Modern Warfare 2, and additionally feature Warzone on mobile. But its Warzone 2.0, or whatever it ends up being called, that is the most intriguing part of this year's Call of Duty offerings. This is the refreshed version of Activision's COD battle royale that we know won't carry over much of your progress - and sounds like it will be an entirely separate entity. Read more  ( 15 min )
  • Open

    Steam Deck hits 4,500 games officially Verified or Playable
    After only being available for a few months now officially and with Valve still going through the reservation queue, the Steam Deck has hit 4,500 titles officially marked Verified or Playable.  ( 4 min )
    The Final Frontier Bundle has some fun space sci-fi available
    Once again Humble Bundle have something that's quite interesting with a nice mixture of sci-fi stuff in the Final Frontier Bundle.  ( 3 min )
    Despot's Game: Dystopian Army Builder releases September 15
    After currently being in Early Access for around 10 months, Despot’s Game: Dystopian Army Builder is set to fully release for all platforms on September 15.  ( 4 min )
    Sandbox voxel game and game engine Minetest 5.6.0 is out now
    Want to play something somewhat resembling Minecraft with excellent modding support, that's also free and open source? Minetest is what you need and a big new release is out now.  ( 4 min )
    Linux Mint 21 is out now and you can easily upgrade
    In case you didn't already know Linux Mint 21 is officially out now with editions that come with the Cinnamon, MATE or Xfce desktop environments.  ( 4 min )
  • Open

    Efter drygt 20 års stiltje gör fighting-spelet Fatal Fury comeback
    Uppföljaren "fått grönt ljus", bekräftar SNK.  ( 6 min )
    Premiär för Moderskeppet – kryssningen för alla som älskar spel och hårdvara
    Häng med på höstens stora äventyr när FZ intar det berömda kryssningsfartyget Viking Cinderella. Detta får inte missas!  ( 7 min )
    Utvecklingen av nya Perfect Dark ska, enligt uppgift, gå "riktigt bra"
    Avhopp har annars präglat spelet.  ( 6 min )
    Splatoon 3 Direct på onsdag!
    30 minuter från ett av höstens stora Switch-spel.  ( 6 min )
    F1 22 får crossplay-stöd inom kort
    Är pc, Playstation eller Xbox snabbast?  ( 6 min )
    Studie - Belgiens hårda lagstiftning mot lootlådor är "ineffektiv"
    Finns i 82 % av de 100 mest inkomstbringande Iphone-spelen - trots förbud.  ( 7 min )
    Studie - Belgiens hårda lagstiftning mot lootlådor är "inneffektiv"
    Finns i 82 % av de 100 mest inkomstbringande Iphone-spelen - trots förbud.  ( 7 min )
    Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord gör konsolpremiär på Gamescom-mässan
    Första chansen att spela det på Playstation och Xbox.  ( 6 min )
    Det blir en öppen CoD: Modern Warfare 2-beta i september - med en racingbana!
    Stor nyhetsdag utlovad dagen innan betan drar igång.  ( 6 min )
    Det blir en öppen CoD: Modern Warfare 2-beta i september
    Stor nyhetsdag utlovad dagen innan betan drar igång.  ( 6 min )
    Tekken 8 verkar ha teasats vid EVO 2022
    Är ni redo?  ( 6 min )
    Dead by Daylight-utvecklarnas nästa är ett pusselspel i en öppen fantasyvärld
    Och inkluderar dessutom co-op.  ( 6 min )
    En hippogriff behöver hjälp i denna mellansekvens från Hogwarts Legacy
    Ett litet klipp för att göra väntan lättare.  ( 6 min )
    Krafton söker utvecklare till spel baserat på fantasyromanerna The Bird That Drinks Tears
    Koreansk fantasy ska bli till spel.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Steep RTX 30-Series Discounts Suggest Impending 40-Series Launch
    Nvidia is discounting its RTX 30-series GPUs at a steep rate, in an apparent attempt to deplete its overabundance of 30-series GPUs prior to the 40-series launch.  ( 61 min )
    Nvidia's RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition Is in Stock for $399: Real Deals
    You can get your hands on an Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti FE at Best Buy for $399, making it one of the cheapest 3060 Ti's on the market currently.  ( 67 min )
    Intel Unveils Arc Pro GPUs
    Intel has taken the lid off its professional range of GPUs, the Arc Pro line aimed at rendering, ray tracing, and movie editing.  ( 61 min )
    Best Webcams of 2022
    We've tested webcams for remote work, streaming, and selfies. Here are the best webcams for every situation.  ( 87 min )
    Nvidia's Gaming Revenue Plunges, Jensen Announces Price Cuts
    Nvidia's preliminary results look bad, but back in May Jensen Huang insisted that the GPU market was “so different” to the market which was severely impacted during the previous crypto crash.  ( 62 min )
    Micron 24GT/s GDDR6X Memory in Production: In Time for Lovelace
    Micron kicks off volume production of 24 GT/s GDDR6X memory, just in time for Nvidia's GeForce RTX 40-series launch.  ( 60 min )
    Lenovo Spills Specifications of Unannounced AMD Ryzen Pro 5000 Processors
    Three new AMD Ryzen Pro 5000 series chips revealed with up to 8C / 16T, no graphics, and with TDPs of 65W or lower.  ( 61 min )
    Best Portable Monitors 2022: Gaming and Laptop Productivity
    These are the best portable monitors to ponder if you're looking to expand real estate for your laptop.  ( 73 min )
    Raspberry Pi Unlocks Door Automatically with Facial Recognition
    Dillon McCardell has created a Raspberry Pi-powered door unlocking mechanism that uses facial recognition to unlock doors automatically.  ( 64 min )
    AMD Threadripper Pro 5995WX and 5975WX Review: Sheer Threaded Dominance
    AMD's Threadripper Pro 5995WX and 5975WX barrel into the workstation market with 64 cores, 128 threads, eight memory channels, and class-leading performance.  ( 95 min )
    Acer Predator Helios 300 (2022) Review: Competitively Priced Middle Ground
    The Acer Predator Helios 300 is a strong gaming laptop with a competitive price, but it makes a few sacrifices along the way.  ( 73 min )
  • Open

    Intel Announces Arc Pro A-Series Professional GPUs
    Intel used SIGGRAPH to announce their forthcoming Arc Pro A-series professional GPUs. The initial products include the Arc A30M mobile GPU, the Arc Pro A40 single-slot GPU, and the Arc Pro A50 dual-slot GPU...  ( 4 min )
    Intel Releases Open-Source OpenPGL To Further Enhance Renderers
    Intel used SIGGRAPH today to announce OpenPGL as what they say is the industry's first open-source library for path guiding so renderer developers can integrate "start of the art" path-guiding methods...  ( 5 min )
    Fedora 37 Cleared To Ship Experimental Web UI Based Installer
    Red Hat has been working on a web-based UI for its Anaconda operating system installer and for the Fedora 37 release this autumn they are planning to have an optional preview of this new installer interface...  ( 5 min )
    AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5965WX Performance On Linux
    Earlier this year AMD announced the Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5000 WX series but initially was limited to Lenovo workstations. Earlier this summer it was then announced the Threadripper PRO 5000 WX series would be heading to more system integrators and then the DIY market. Well, finally, these Zen 3 Threadripper chips are heading out to the DYI market and today the review embargo lifts. AMD recently sent over a Ryzen Threadripper PRO 565WX for my Linux testing at Phoronix and here is my initial review and performance benchmarks for this Zen 3 24-core / 48-thread HEDT chip.  ( 5 min )
    AMD "Automatic Mode Transition" Comes For Lenovo ThinkPad Laptops With Linux 6.0
    AMD Automatic Mode Transition (AMT) is a new feature wired up for Ryzen-powered ThinkPad laptops that is being introduced with the Linux 6.0 kernel...  ( 5 min )
    Habana Labs Gaudi2 Support Leads The Linux 6.0 Char/Misc Changes
    The "char/misc" changes were merged a few days back for the Linux 6.0 kernel with this pull being the rather "random catch-all" area of the kernel for drivers not fitting within other subsystems. Most notable with the char/misc updates for Linux 6.0 is introducing support for Intel's Habana Labs Gaudi2...  ( 5 min )
    OpenBLAS 0.3.21 Brings Support For Newer Arm CPUs, More Optimizations
    OpenBLAS as the high performance, open-source BLAS / LAPACK implementation debuted a new version on Sunday with more CPU optimizations and expanded processor coverage...  ( 4 min )
    IBM Power Improvements For Linux 6.0 Support The PowerVM Platform KeyStore
    The IBM Power CPU architecture updates have been merged for the in-development Linux 6.0 kernel...  ( 5 min )
    AMD's "Sabrina" SoC Is Mendocino - Coreboot Enablement Continues
    You may recall the Phoronix news earlier this year around an AMD "Sabrina" SoC appearing in Coreboot for open-source system firmware support. Over the past few months we've cited a number of AMD Sabrina hits in open-source code but outside of that haven't heard much else about "Sabrina" or seen it on AMD's roadmaps...  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Premiär för Moderskeppet – kryssningen för alla som älskar spel och hårdvara
    Putsa handkontrollen och damma av modermodemet, för snart intar SweClockers det berömda kryssningsfartyget Viking Cinderella. Följ med på höstens stora äventyr!  ( 7 min )
    Intel Core i9-13900K når 350 watt med upplåst effektbudget
    Med obegränsad effektbudget driver det törstiga flaggskeppet iväg även utan överklockning, som nu testas i både Cinebench R23 och AIDA 64.  ( 6 min )
    Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5000 blir tillgänglig för konsumenter
    AMD håller fast vid att den tidigare entusiastplattformen är för professionella användare. Nu blir de tre mest kraftfulla modellerna tillgängliga för den som behöver och har råd.  ( 6 min )
    Se reprisen av Samsung Galaxy Unpacked
    Nu på onsdag lyfter Samsung på skynket för nästa generations vikbara enheter. Följ livesändningen med SweClockers!  ( 6 min )
    Samsungs vikbara nyheter avtäcks den 10 augusti
    Nu på onsdag lyfter Samsung på skynket för nästa generations vikbara enheter. Följ livesändningen med SweClockers!  ( 5 min )
    Microsoft ökar säkerheten i Edge med "Super Duper Secure Mode"
    Det långa namnet fimpas när Microsoft flyttar säkerhetsfunktionen från teststadiet till den skarpa versionen av webbläsaren Edge.  ( 6 min )
    MSI och Acer avtäcker Intel Arc A380-grafikkort
    Som del i färdigbyggda datorer ansluter nu två aktörer till duon som redan hoppat på Intel Arc-tåget.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Resident Evil Remakes are fine and all - but I’d trade them for more Dead Rising
    In a recent episode of the VG247 ‘Best Games Ever’ Podcast - which is excellent, by the way - Dead Rising became a topic of hot conversation. It feels appropriate that it did - as that episode of the podcast was released just a matter of days before this week’s anniversary of the series, which kicked off back on August 8th 2006. 16 isn’t exactly a tentpole anniversary to mark, but Dead Rising is worth celebrating no matter the year. With classic Capcom horror getting a resurgence thanks to a revitalized Resident Evil push, what better way to capitalize on the newfound thirst for frights than more Dead Rising! To talk about what makes the series so great, and why it deserves to rise from the grave, Alex and Connor talk about what makes the series so great, and what they’d like to see revisited in the future. Alex: Well, I don’t quite know where to start. I was the guy who bought up Dead Rising on the podcast - for the episode ‘best game you were ridiculously excited for as a teen’. For me it was a perfect fit for that category; I was 17 at the time, and Dead Rising was the first game of that console generation where I just looked at it and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The number of zombies! The number of interactive items! How open-ended it appeared! It came out the better part of a year into the 360’s life, but it was the first game of that generation that truly wowed me with that nebulous sense of next-genness. Read more  ( 21 min )
    EVO was dominated by rollback netcode announcements, and I couldn't be happier
    Evo 2022 just wrapped up this morning, and as a UK resident who stayed up to watch the whole thing until roughly 30 minutes before work started, it was exhausting. I’m not talking about the run time, I’m talking about the back-to-back banger announcements coming from multiple fighting game developers over the weekend. A large quantity of which, you’ll be happy to know, revolves around the implementation of rollback netcode. For those not in the know, rollback netcode has kind of been the hot topic over the past few years (although arguably it’s been heating up for over a decade now), reaching its burning point during the worldwide COVID-19 lockdowns. While before a large chunk of games struggled to match you up with opponents online without lag, dropped frames, or teleporting, we’ve now seen a vast selection of games past present and future featuring this improved netcode moving forward. While new characters may seem far more exciting for the average player, and this weekend didn’t hold back with announcements for rad new roster additions, it’s way more important in my book to see pre-existing games with entrenched communities get the support they need via online overhauls. Read more  ( 17 min )
    If you want rollback netcode, you’re going to have to play Dragon Ball FighterZ on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, or PC
    Arc System Works has announced that Dragon Ball Fighterz is finally getting rollback netcode, but there's a catch. Let's start with the good news: Dragon Ball Fighterz is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X, at some point anyway, and with that will come the fabled rollback netcode (which will also come to the PC version of the game). What's the bad news, you ask? The PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game won't be getting rollback netcode, it looks like. The news was announced at Evo, and the official Bandai Namco Esports account put out a statement going into a bit more detail. "As a result of our continuous testing to include the rollback system, it has been confirmed that the implementation can be applied to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, and we have officially been working on its production," reads the statement. Read more  ( 15 min )
    This Elden Ring mod understands that a hunter must hunt with Bloodborne-style gun parries
    A group of modders have worked together to bring Bloodborne's tight gun parrying to FromSoftware's latest, Elden Ring. YouTuber and modder Garden of Eyes is collaborating with COTA Studios to create a mod that adds a touch more gunplay to The Lands Between than there used to be, namely Bloodborne's gun parrying system, as spotted by Eurogamer. As well as another mod adding in some skins for our trusty Torrent, and a third mod that restores and reimagines certain weapons. If you haven't played Bloodborne and experienced the joys of pulling off a gun parry, allow us to explain. In Dark Souls, you typically parry by swinging your shield at just the right time to stagger your opponent. Bloodborne doesn't really have defensive options apart from one crappy shield, however if you time your gunshot just right, you can stagger most enemies in the game. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s release feels like the Switch is teetering on the cusp of a real piracy problem
    It’s been possible to play Nintendo Switch games on devices that aren’t the Nintendo Switch for a while now. This is nothing new. But, over the last couple of weeks, I really feel like I’ve sensed a shift in the scale of the conversation – and though it’s anecdotal, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 feels like a sea change. To explain what I mean, let me give you a little bit of website inside baseball. As you’ve probably noticed, game guides are a major part of the business model for outlets like VG247. What guides we produce are determined by two key factors. The first is intuition – we play the game and figure out what we feel people are going to get stuck on or worry about enough to pick up their phone and punch in a search. Once a game is released, we can track what people are typing into Google, Bing, and other such search engines more directly. And if we see a particular search spiking in popularity and frequency, we know that we should probably do a guide on it. Read more  ( 19 min )
    Splatoon 3 gets a beefy 30 minute-long Direct later this week
    Nintendo has announced it will be hosting a Direct entirely dedicated to Splatoon 3 later this week. The Direct is planned to be held August 10, so this coming Wednesday, at 2pm BST/ 3pm CEST, and promises about 30 minutes of updates regarding the upcoming third-person-shooter. You'll be able to watch the direct on Nintendo UK's official YouTube channel when it goes live later this week. Other than that, no specific details on what we can expect to see in the Direct, though obviously Nintendo has plenty to show us considering it's around 30 minutes long. We'll likely see some new weapons and the like. Maybe there will be some surprises along the way considering this is Nintendo who isn't known for going by the book. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Blizzard says that $45 skin survey isn't "indicative of final pricing"
    A survey sent to Overwatch 2 players suggested the game could have $45 skins, but Blizzard has officially commented to say it doesn't represent the final pricing. The survey asking players about how much they'd be willing to spend on skins and other cosmetics went out towards the end of July, and obviously fans were concerned about the idea of spending up to $45 on a single skin. Now, Blizzard has addressed the survey, telling IGN that it is "not indicative of final pricing." "This survey is entirely intended to better understand player preferences for different types of Overwatch 2 cosmetics," a Blizzard spokesperson told IGN. "Prices displayed in the survey were randomized per user and are not indicative of final pricing. We plan to share details on our Shop and Battle Pass system closer to our Oct. 4 launch." Read more  ( 15 min )
    Bridget joins Guilty Gear Strive as part of Season 2 DLC
    As Evo 2022 unfolded over the weekend, there were plenty of reveals and announcements, one of which is undoubtedly great news for fans of Guilty Gear Strive. Perhaps one of the series' most popular characters, Bridget, will be joining the game as a playable character during Season 2 of DLC. Perhaps what is even better news for fans is the fact that they are playable right now. In addition to this, Arc System Works also reminded fans that Bridget is not the only new character to be coming to the game during Season 2, with three more brand new characters expected to be introduced over the coming months. Bridget made their first playable appearance in Guilty Gear X2, with their last appearance as a playable character in Guilty Gear XX Core Plus R. This is the first title since where players will be able to fight as the yo-yo master. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Dead by Daylight leaks reportedly reveal Albert Wesker's power and perks
    Following the Behaviour Beyond showcase last week which saw Dead by Daylight developer, Behaviour Interactive, show off their upcoming endeavours, we got a glimpse at the latest Resident Evil chapter to come to the game. Dead By Daylight's Project W chapter is the second Resident Evil chapter to come to Dead by Daylight, and it has since been revealed that Albert Wesker will be joining the roster of killers, with Ada Wong and Rebecca Chamber joining the survivors. While we certainly got a good look at the new characters during the showcase, as well as some of Behaviour's upcoming games, we weren't fortunate enough to learn of the characters' powers and perks. That being said, reputable leaker, DBDLeaks on Twitter, appears to have shared some details as to what each character will be capable of when introduced to the game. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Over 20 years later, we're getting a new Fatal Fury game
    It was a big weekend over at EVO 2022: as well getting new character announcements for Street Fighter 6, and what appears to be a Tekken 8 teaser, SNK announced that we'll be getting a new entry in the fan-favourite, long-dead Fatal Fury/Garou series, too! This new game – of which we currently know precious little about – will be the first entry in the series since Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Which launched way back in 1999. Some 23 years ago. Talk about a comeback, right? As was the case with SNK's other recent fighting game, King of Fighters 15, no release window or platforms have been named. You can probably expect to wait quite a while for that info; we didn't get more specific information until quite late into the KoF 15 marketing cycle. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer and Warzone 2 reveal finally happening in September
    At the conclusion of this year's Call of Duty: League esports tournament, Activision made good on its promise to share new information about Modern Warfare 2. Though that only brought us an announcement of an announcement, we at least have some solid information this time around. For one, we got our first look at Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer... in the form of a fly-through of one of the game's 6v6 maps: Marina Bay Grand Prix. The real news, of course, is the all-encompassing Call of Duty: Next event. Scheduled for Thursday, September 15, the showcase will focus entirely on Call of Duty games. It'll feature a proper Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer reveal, details on Warzone 2 and the future of the series, some news on Warzone mobile, as well as live gameplay of Modern Warfare 2. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Street Fighter 6: New Evo 2022 trailer reveals Kimberly and Juri
    Street Fighter 6 has received a brand new trailer as part of Evo 2022’s Street Fighter 5 tournament - this time revealing Juri and Kimberly as official additions to the cast. Set to launch in 2023, this trailer raises the total official character count to seven as we march closer to the eventual release of the highly anticipated 2D fighter! Kimberly - a character teased in the background of the initial Street Fighter 6 gameplay showcase earlier this year - is a ninja who has brought their unique 80’s pop culture style to the game, slinging around spray paint and packing her personal cassette player around to high-flying fights. Kimberly shares some similarity to Guy, another Ninja who has popped up in Street Fighter numerous times but originally came from the Final Fight series. There’s good reason for this, as its been revealed via an official PlayStation blog post on the reveal that Kimberly is part of his Dojo - another cool callback for Street Fighter lore heads. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Tekken 8, or whatever's next for the series, teased at EVO 2022
    A 'blink and you'll miss it' teaser was shown during EVO 2022 last night, and it hinted at a brand new Tekken game. Whether this will be the next canon game in the series, Tekken 8, or another spin-off like Tekken Tag Tournament 3 remains to be seen. There's only one thing we know for sure: more Tekken is coming. The trailer, which you can see embedded above, shows series mainstay and Smash Bros. interloper, Kazuya Mishima, in his ending from the original Tekken. We get to see him drop his unloving, sociopathic father, Heihachi, off a cliff – and then a snatch of static segues into the 'current' version of Kazuya (complete with red eye and scar) in nice, crisp, modern graphics. "GET READY", the trailer instructs us. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Bits from Debian: Debian Day 2022 - call for celebration
    Every year on August 16th, the anniversary of the Debian Project takes place. And several communities around the world celebrate this date by organizing local meetings in an event called "Debian Day". So, how about celebrating the 29th anniversary of the Debian Project in 2022 in your city? We invite you and your local community to organize Debian Day by hosting an event with talks, workshops, bug squashing party, OpenPGP keysigning, etc. Or simply holding a meeting between people who like Debian in a bar/pizzeria/cafeteria/restaurant to celebrate. In other words, any type of meeting is valid! But remember that the COVID-19 pandemic is not over yet, so take all necessary measures to protect attendees. As the 16th of August falls on a Tuesday, if you think it's better to organize it during the weekend, no problem. The importance is to celebrate the Debian Project. Remember to add your city to the Debian Day wiki page There is a list of Debian Local Groups around the world. If your city is listed, talk to them to organize DebianDay together. There is a list of Debian Local Groups around the world. If your city is listed, talk to them to organized the Debian Day together. Let's use hashtags #DebianDay #DebianDay2022 on social media.  ( 2 min )
    Adnan Hodzic: atuf.app: Amsterdam Toilet & Urinal Finder
    Amsterdam is a great city to enjoy a beer, or two. However, after you had your beers and you’re strolling down the streets, you might... The post atuf.app: Amsterdam Toilet & Urinal Finder appeared first on FoolControl: Phear the penguin.  ( 23 min )
    Ian Jackson: dkim-rotate - rotation and revocation of DKIM signing keys
    Background Internet email is becoming more reliant on DKIM, a scheme for having mail servers cryptographically sign emails. The Big Email providers have started silently spambinning messages that lack either DKIM signatures, or SPF. DKIM is arguably less broken than SPF, so I wanted to deploy it. But it has a problem: if done in a naive way, it makes all your emails non-repudiable, forever. This is not really a desirable property - at least, not desirable for you, although it can be nice for someone who (for example) gets hold of leaked messages obtained by hacking mailboxes. This problem was described at some length in Matthew Green’s article Ok Google: please publish your DKIM secret keys. Following links from that article does get you to a short script to achieve key rotation but it had…
  • Open

    Comic for 2022.08.08 - Ass Work
    New Cyanide and Happiness Comic  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Sunamu: Display Lyrics for Currently Playing Music on the Dekstop in Linux
    Want to control your music using a beautiful widget on Linux? Sunamu is for you to try! It can even detect and show lyrics for currently playing music.  ( 24 min )
  • Open

    Scientific Field Prefixes
    No content preview  ( 1 min )

  • Open

    Aurelien Jarno: GNU libc 2.34 in unstable
    The GNU libc version 2.34 has just been accepted into unstable. Getting it ready has been more challenging than other versions, as this version integrates a few libraries (libpthread, libdl, libutil, libanl) into libc. While this is handled transparently at runtime, there are a few corner cases at build time: For backwards compatibility, empty static archives (e.g. libpthread.a) are provided, so that the linker options keep working. However a few cmake files shipped in some packages still reference the path to the shared library symlink (e.g. libpthread.so) which is now removed. A few symbols have also been moved from libresolv to libc and their __ prefix removed. While compatibily symbols are provided in the shared library for runtime compatiblity, this does not work at link time for static libraries referencing this symbol. The next challenge is to get it migrating into testing! For the adventurous persons, GNU libc 2.35 is now available in experimental. And as people keep asking, the goal is to get the just released GNU libc 2.36 into Bookworm.  ( 1 min )
    Dirk Eddelbuettel: RApiSerialize 0.1.1 on CRAN: Updates
    A new release 0.1.1 of RApiSerialize is now on CRAN. While this is the first release in seven years (!!), it brings mostly minor internal updates along with the option of using serialization format 3. The package is used by both my RcppRedis as well as by Travers excellent qs package. Neither one of us has a need to switch to format 3 yet so format 2 remains the default. But along with other standard updates to package internals, it was straightforward to offer the newer format so that is what we did. Changes in version 0.1.1 (2022-08-07) Updated CI use to r-ci Expanded and updated both DESCRIPTION and README.md Updated package internals to register compiled functions Add support for serialization format 3, default remains 2 Minor synchronization with upstream Courtesy of my CRANberries, there is also a diffstat to the previous version. More details are at the RApiSerialize page; code, issue tickets etc at the GitHub repository. If you like this or other open-source work I do, you can now sponsor me at GitHub. Dirk Eddelbuettel originated on his Thinking inside the box blog. Please report excessive re-aggregation in third-party for-profit settings.  ( 3 min )
  • Open

    Linux 6.0 SMB3 Client Code Brings Multi-Channel Performance Improvement
    The Linux CIFS/SMB3 client updates were merged on Sunday for the Linux 6.0 merge window. Notable with this round of updates is a performance improvement for the multi-channel mode...  ( 5 min )
    OpenSUSE Tumblewed Planning To Finally End ReiserFS Support
    SUSE had been one of the big supporters of ReiserFS two decades ago when it was using the ReiserFS file-system by default but that practice ended in 2006. While SUSE/openSUSE hasn't defaulted to ReiserFS for many years, it has remained an install-time option and retained support for mounting ReiserFS file-systems, but that practice is likely soon ending...  ( 4 min )
    Realtek R8188EU Driver Sees "Huge Cleanups" With Linux 6.0
    Along with his various other pull requests for areas of the kernel he oversees, Greg Kroah-Hartman submitted the Linux 6.0 staging changes this week...  ( 5 min )
    RADV Lands Rewritten Acceleration Structures For Ray-Tracing In Mesa 22.3
    Being merged into Mesa 22.3 this morning for the open-source Radeon Vulkan driver "RADV" are rewritten acceleration structures for the ray-tracing support...  ( 4 min )
    BUS1 Working On "r-linux" - A Rust Capability-Based Linux Runtime
    BUS1 started out as a Linux kernel IPC module following the failure of KDBUS and while there still are occasional commits to that out-of-tree BUS1 kernel module, the involved (Red Hat) developers have been primarily working on Dbus-Broker as the high performance, user-space D-Bus implementation that delivers greater speed and reliability over the reference D-Bus code. Now also popping up under the BUS1 umbrella is "r-linux" as a Rust-written, capability-based Linux runtime...  ( 5 min )
    RISC-V With Linux 6.0 Improves Svpbmt, More Useful Default Kernel Configuration
    Each new kernel cycle there continues to be more maturity to the RISC-V processor architecture code. With Linux 6.0 there are a few new features wired up as well as bug fixes / clean-ups...  ( 4 min )
    Linux 6.0 Fixes Broken Keyboards On Ryzen 6000 Laptops, Power Management Additions
    The ACPI and power management changes for the in-development Linux 6.0 landed this week with continued preparations for upcoming Intel and AMD hardware as well as improving existing hardware support...  ( 5 min )
    FBDEV Updates For Linux 6.0 Bring Fixes For The Atari Graphics Chipset Driver
    Earlier this year a developer stepped up willing to maintain Linux's FBDEV subsystem for frame-buffer device drivers since it fell into an unmaintained state in 2016 but even prior to that had been on the decline in the era of more proper DRM/KMS drivers. Helge Deller continues that work overseeing the frame-buffer device "FBDEV" subsystem and this week sent in the new patches for Linux 6.0...  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Nyhetsquiz vecka 31 2022: Winamp, Ryzen 7000 och Intel Arc
    Förväntan och besvikelse löper parallellt i nyhetsflödet, när färska processorer och tveksamma grafikkort trängs. Får du alla rätt den här veckan?  ( 5 min )
    MSI bekräftar datumet för Ryzen 7000-lanseringen
    Den 15 september släpper MSI lös fyra moderkort som endast kan användas tillsammans med Ryzen 7000-serien, vilket styrker att rykten om AMD:s lanseringsdatum stämmer.  ( 5 min )
    Intel Core i9-13900 "Raptor Lake" på operationsbordet
    Med rakblad och värmepistol avlägsnas värmespridaren från ett utvecklingsexemplar av Core i9-13900. Under huven hittas en krets på 257 mm².  ( 6 min )
    Söndagsmatiné: En spännande jakt på förlorade Bitcoin
    Att förvara sin kryptovaluta på ett säkert sätt är helt klart vettigt, men med lite otur kan det bli dyrt. I veckans klipp gör Joe Grand ett försök att vaska fram två miljoner förlorade dollar.  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    EVGA Slashes $1,000 Off GeForce RTX 3090 Ti GPUs, Starting at $1,149
    EVGA is selling a couple of custom GeForce RTX 3090 Ti graphics cards below MSRP.  ( 61 min )
    Raspberry Pi Home Assistant Runs on Old Sony TV-511
    Telefrag Entertainment has created a custom voice assistant system using Jarvis on a Raspberry Pi with video output to an old Sony TV-511 television.  ( 60 min )
    Tachyum to Cadence: Our Prodigy Doesn't Meet Prodigious Goals, Sue You!
    Suing your subcontractor is not something you do every day.  ( 61 min )
    How to Build Your Own 3D Printed Raspberry Pi Robot (Updated)
    From designing the robot to 3D printing we show you the tools and talk you through the steps to build a Raspberry Pi robot.  ( 66 min )
    Crucial X6 4TB Portable SSD Review: A Ton of Storage on the Go
    We put the spacious 4TB Crucial X6 portable SSD through our expansive test regimen to see how it stacks up.  ( 67 min )
  • Open

    Dead by Daylight får mer Resident Evil-innehåll
    Spela som Albert Wesker i Dead by Daylight  ( 6 min )
    Activision Blizzards mobilspel drar in mer pengar än konsol och PC tillsammans
    Activision Blizzard täljer handhållet guld på kontoret  ( 7 min )
    Rykte: Eidos Montreal vill återuppliva Deus Ex
    Mer cyberpunk åt folket!  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Redfall is making a 30 minute-long appearance at QuakeCon
    Arkane's next vampire-ridden title Redfall is getting a 30 minute slot at the upcoming QuakeCon, as confirmed by Bethesda. QuakeCon, unsurprisingly, is generally all things Quake, but other Bethesda titles do now make an apperance, and everything is set to get started August 18 at 6pm BST, just under two weeks away. And it looks like shortly after the welcome segment that kicks things off, starting from 6:15pm BST, there will be a 30 minute slot that dives in on the not-so-idyllic Redfall (thanks, Eurogamer). "The team at Arkane Austin takes you inside their upcoming squad-based vampire shooter with new insights, gameplay details and more!" reads the description of the event. Whether there will be any actual gameplay shown off or not or if just new details are planned to be shared isn't clear, but the promise of "new" will likely hold true in some shape or form. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Cancelled Warcraft point-and-click game gets a fanmade remaster six years in the making
    Back in the '90s, a point-and-click adventure game take on Warcraft was in development, and though it was cancelled, a fan has remastered a build of the game that was leaked years ago. The leak of the cancelled game, Warcraft: Lord of the Clans, appeared online back in 2016, though while very playable, cutscenes were very crunchy and low-resolution, with audio not quite synced, and some cutscenes were simply missing. However, as reported by PC Gamer and first spotted by IndieRetroNews, a fan has spent the past six years remastering all of the cutscenes to make it a bit more enjoyable to experience. This particular project was led by modder DerSilver83, who paired the release of the mini-remaster with a blog post discussing it. "I have been working on it for the last 6 years and in that time I have done almost all I can do within a reasonable timeframe to complete and enhance the cutscenes," wrote DerSilver83. "For me the game is very much enjoyable now and I see no real use in enhancing the cutscenes any further." Read more  ( 15 min )
    Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is getting rereleased... as an arcade cabinet
    Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, one of the most popular entries in the series, is getting rereleased, but it'll probably cost you a fair bit of bob. This latest release comes from Arcade1Up, as a brand new arcade cabinet, bringing things full circle. The cabinet was announced at fighting game championship series Evo, unsurprisingly, and it will make it the most recent, easily available release of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 in years. You'll be able to pre-order the cabinet from September 8, and while a price hasn't been announced yet, you can probably expect it to cost around $449.99 to $499.99 based on its other cabinets. It has a 17-inch monitor, and features Wi-Fi connectivity for online multiplayer too. Though for those of us in the UK, unfortunately the cabinet will only be able to order in the US and Canada. Read more  ( 16 min )
    PlayStation is asking players about NFTs they like to collect at Evo
    PlayStation has put out a survey for players attending Evo, asking about types of NFTs they might be interested in purchasing. It's Evo at the moment, which for those in the know is the biggest fighting game championship around. Numerous games take part in the tournament every year, but this year a relatively concerning question is being asked by PlayStation in a survey sent to players at Evo, one all about everyone's least favourite topic at the moment; NFTs. The survey, which IGN confirmed was real, asked those answering the survey "Which of the following NFT/ Digital Collectibles would you be most interested in purchasing?" followed by things like "PlayStation Items, Favourite Game Characters," and "Evo-branded" collectibles. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Square Enix sold off Western studios due to concern of Japanese game sales being "cannibalised"
    In its most recent quarterly earnings call, Square Enix explained its reasoning behind selling off its Western studios. Back in May, Square Enix announced it was selling off Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal, the studios behind Tomb Raider and Deus Ex respectively. Now, as reported by Polygon, Square Enix has explained in its financial results that this is due to the fact that games from its Western studios might have been cannibalising the sales of its other games, according to analyst David Gibson. Gibson noted that the sale of the studios and their IPs would have the potential to "improve capital efficiency," i.e. making more money compared to what it's spending, in order to continue to make more money. And according to Gibson, the move to sell these studios to Embracer Group is part of its first phase, with the second phase being "diversification of studio capital structure." Read more  ( 15 min )
    Beyond Good and Evil 2, despite all odds, is still kicking as it takes on new lead writer
    Somehow, despite everything suggesting it should be dead in the water, Beyond Good and Evil 2 is still in development, as it just got a new lead writer. Beyond Good and Evil 2, the supposedly upcoming sequel to the cult classic original, hasn't exactly had a smooth development. Some version of it has been in development since at least 2008, though its first teaser trailer was the only evidence of its existence until the re-reveal in 2017. In 2020 the game's director Michel Ancel left the games industry entirely, though in 2021 Ubisoft did say it's still in development. And that somehow does still seem to be the case, as the game recently took on a new lead writer, as reported by PC Gamer. Sarah Arellano, who has done work for Blizzard and Volition, announced the news via her personal Twitter account, which is the most we've heard about the game in the last year. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Zenless Zone Zero's beta test shows some flashy looking gameplay
    The first beta test for Zenless Zone Zero is underway, and gameplay has started appearing online giving us a first proper look. First revealed back in May, Zenless Zone Zero is the next big title from HoYoverse, obviously best known for the insatiably popular Genshin Impact. There's been tasty morsels of gameplay shown here and there since its announcement, but never anything too substantial. August 5 saw the start of the game's first beta test however, and so far it's looking pretty action packed based on gameplay shared online (thanks, PCGamer). Where Genshin Impact's genre is obviously fantasy, Zenless Zone Zero is much more modern, with some strong Jet Set Radio and The World Ends With You vibes. It also differs in that it's a roguelike, where you explore areas called Hollows to take down monsters. It seems that each mission is made up of various screens, in the very literal TV sense, which each contain their own levels. Read more  ( 15 min )
    MultiVersus' hitbox and hurtbox system is getting a "big overhaul"
    According to MultiVersus director Tony Huynh, the game's hitbox and hurtbox system is going to get a "big overhaul." We've had our hands on the Smash Bros-like MultiVersus for coming up to two weeks now, so obviously the team at Player First Games will have a stronger idea of what does and doesn't need changing. And based on what Huynh is saying, as spotted by VGC, it's the hitbox and hurtbox system that needs some big changes. In response to a follower asking if Finn would be receiving a particular nerf, Huynh said "We’ll be looking at Finn in sections, we are working on a big overhaul of our hitbox/hurtbox system so don’t want too many moving parts." Read more  ( 15 min )
  • Open

    Comic for 2022.08.07 - New Puppy
    New Cyanide and Happiness Comic  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    PlayStation 5's new 1440p firmware: a better picture for PC monitors
    8K display support may still be AWOL but Sony surprised us all last week by revealing a new firmware beta test, opening the door to 1440p functionality for PlayStation 5 amongst a range of other smaller scale new features and quality of life upgrades. With its plans to break into the PC monitor market, adding support for 2560x1440 functionality makes sense and while the firmware beta works well, a little more work is required to ensure this update delivers everything it should. Before going into the specifics, the introduction of this feature shows that Sony is responding more readily to consumer feedback. Not only has support for 1440p monitors been implemented, the firm has also responded to criticisms of its initial implementation of Auto Low Latency Mode support, an option that ba…  ( 20 min )
    The Switch remains the best console for shmups since the Saturn - and these are some of the best
    The Switch is well into its fifth year, somehow, and despite some stiff competition from the Steam Deck recently it hasn't lost its lustre nor its position by my side wherever I go: maybe it's something to do with the immense library I've got on mine at this point, filled to the brim with shmups of all sizes in what's long been a speciality of the system. Once it was the novelty of having these things on the go, plus the ease of playing vertical scrolling shooting games as intended in 'tate' mode with the screen flipped (and without worrying about permanent damage like I used to when pushing a chunky old CRT on its side to play Ikaruga as Treasure intended). Now it's just the abundance of classics that can be dipped in and out of at leisure - and the thing I love about the humble shmup is how immediate they are, making them perfect for short blasts. So here's a list of some personal favourites, and a rundown of the shmups that are in almost constant rotation on my Switch. There should be an emphasis on the personal, here - there's no science here, and an awful lot of bias towards my own taste for simple, spectacular shmups rather than those with fussy scoring systems. So there's no Ikaruga here, I'm afraid - apologies, I do love it but I'm not going to pretend to be a master of its rigid polarity-based system (when - or if - Radiant Silvergun ever makes it to the Switch you can be assured it'll be top of this list, though). Read more  ( 20 min )
  • Open

    The Sunday Papers
    Sundays are for indulging in a Walkers grab bag. Before you reach in, let's read this week's best writing about games (and game related things). Read more  ( 17 min )
    Re-Volt has returned to Steam and GOG after 8 years
    Re-Volt is a remote control car racing game released in 1999 to mixed reviews, but 23 years later there's still a community devoted to it. After a nine year absence, the game has now returned to Steam and GOG. It's apparently in less than ideal condition, but the community already have fixes for that. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Steam now has support for Nintendo Joy-Cons in beta
    Last week, Steam added support for Nintendo Online classic controllers. What it didn't have was support for the Nintendo Switch's default Joy-Con controllers. A beta update has now changed that. Read more  ( 15 min )
  • Open

    UK wants criminal migrants to scan their faces up to five times a day using a watch
    Plus: Meta launches prototype AI chatbot, and cities reverse facial recognition bans In brief  The UK's Home Office and Ministry of Justice want migrants with criminal convictions to scan their faces up to five times a day using a smartwatch kitted out with facial-recognition software.…  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    How to Upgrade to Linux Mint 21 [Step by Step Tutorial]
    A step-by-step screenshot guide demonstrating how to upgrade to Linux Mint 21 from Mint 20. It also has steps for upgrading to Mint 20 from the Mint 19 version.  ( 35 min )
  • Open

    Untitled
    No content preview  ( 2 min )

  • Open

    Zenless Zone Zero's closed beta has started, offering glimpses of its Genshin Impact-style combat
    Zenless Zone Zero has begun its closed beta. If you don't know the name, it's Hoyoverse's upcoming free-to-play action-RPG which draws on their experience making Genshin Impact (and its many antecedents) but places those combat and RPG systems within a roguelike structure. Because it's now in closed beta, the internet is covered in videos showing it in action, and its action looks nice. Read more  ( 16 min )
    American Truck Simulator's Montana DLC is available now
    Last week I left the factory loading bay with the news that American Truck Simulator latest DLC had a release date, but it seems only fair I complete the job and deliver the news that: hey, American Truck Simulator's Montana DLC is out now. Read more  ( 16 min )
    What are we all playing this weekend?
    We're entering another stretch of summer games busyness, following NotE3. This month we have events including German game bonanza Gamescom, Bethesda's QuakeCon, the indie horror showcase EEK3, and, starting today, Japanese indie fest BitSummit. But those are futuregames. For now, what are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on! Read more  ( 17 min )
  • Open

    DuckDuckGo says Hell, Hell, No to those Microsoft trackers after web revolt
    Plus: That Twitter privacy leak, scammers send Ubers for victims, critical flaw in Cisco gear, and more In brief  DuckDuckGo has finally mostly cracked down on the third-party Microsoft tracking scripts that got the alternative search engine into hot water earlier this year.…  ( 9 min )
    FauxPilot: It's like GitHub Copilot but doesn't phone home to Microsoft
    And if you train your own AI model for it, you can worry less about licensing Updated  GitHub Copilot, one of several recent tools for generating programming code suggestions with the help of AI models, remains problematic for some users due to licensing concerns and to the telemetry the software sends back to the Microsoft-owned company.…  ( 6 min )
    Hi, I'll be your ransomware negotiator today – but don't tell the crooks that
    What it's like bargaining with criminals ... and advising clients suffering their worst day yet Interview  The first rule of being a ransomware negotiator is that you don't admit you're a ransomware negotiator — at least not to LockBit or another cybercrime gang. …  ( 8 min )
    Remember the humanoid Tesla robot? It's ready for September reveal, says Musk
    Find it next to the Cybertruck, Boring tunnel maps, Twitter acquisition and my sense of commitment If Elon Musk's claims made during Tesla's shareholder meeting this week are accurate, get ready for that humanoid robot he promised, some self-driving software update, and an overhauled Cybertruck. Then again, this is Elon we're talking about.…  ( 5 min )
    Apple tells suppliers to use 'Taiwan, China' or 'Chinese Taipei' to appease Beijing
    That's the way the Cook he crumbles Apple, which celebrates its self-professed commitment to free expression and human rights, has reportedly told its suppliers in Taiwan to label their components so they describe Taiwan as a province of the People's Republic of China (PRC).…  ( 6 min )
    Russia: Hey, don't act surprised if we're still on the ISS in 2030
    Yeah, they do have a habit of being in places where they are no longer welcome Russia's space agency has signaled it may well continue maintaining its chunk of the International Space Station to potentially as far out as 2030. Or as early as 2025.…  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Dirk Eddelbuettel: RcppCCTZ 0.2.11 on CRAN: Updates
    A new release 0.2.11 of RcppCCTZ is now on CRAN. RcppCCTZ uses Rcpp to bring CCTZ to R. CCTZ is a C++ library for translating between absolute and civil times using the rules of a time zone. In fact, it is two libraries. One for dealing with civil time: human-readable dates and times, and one for converting between between absolute and civil times via time zones. And while CCTZ is made by Google(rs), it is not an official Google product. The RcppCCTZ page has a few usage examples and details. This package was the first CRAN package to use CCTZ; by now four others packages include its sources too. Not ideal, but beyond our control. This version updates the include headers used in the interface API header thanks to a PR by Jing Lu, updates to upstream changes, and switched r-ci CI to r2u. Changes in version 0.2.11 (2022-08-06) More specific includes in RcppCCTZ_API.h (Jing Lu in #42 closing #41). Synchronized with upstream CCTZ (Dirk in #43). Switched r-ci to r2u use. Courtesy of my CRANberries, there is also a diffstat to the previous version. More details are at the RcppCCTZ page; code, issue tickets etc at the GitHub repository. If you like this or other open-source work I do, you can now sponsor me at GitHub. Dirk Eddelbuettel originated on his Thinking inside the box blog. Please report excessive re-aggregation in third-party for-profit settings.  ( 3 min )
  • Open

    Support for Nintendo Joy-Con controllers added to Steam
    Quick bit of news for you: Steam now supports Nintendo Switch's Joy-Con controllers. Support was added by Valve via the latest Steam Client Beta which was released earlier this week. The update supports the controllers both individually as a mini-gamepad and combined into pairs. Read more  ( 14 min )
    Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak stream to provide news on Title Update 1 next week
    Capcom plans to host a Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak digital stream next week full of news on Title Update 1. You can tune-in to the stream on Tuesday, August 9 at 7am PT/10am ET/3pm UK via Twitch. During the digital event, Capcom will provide news on upcoming Title Update 1, which includes Lucent Nargacuga, Seething Bazelgeuse, and more. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Mario Kart 8 Deluxe datamine reveals list of potential tracks coming in future DLC
    A recent Mario Kart 8 Deluxe datamine has revealed potential tracks coming to the game in the future. If you wish to remain unspoiled, don't read past the video. According to Nintendo dataminer OatmealDome along with dataminers recordreader, BLBambooMK2, and fishguy6564, when Wave 2 DLC was released for the game this week, Nintendo accidentally left a list of music preview files inside of the update. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Krafton's on a hiring spree for its game based on Korean fantasy series The Bird That Drinks Tears
    Krafton, the developer of PUBG, is currently hiring for the fantasy game it has in the works, known as Project Windless. Based on the popular Korean fantasy series The Bird That Drinks Tears by author Yeong-do Lee, nothing is really known about the in-development title other than the IP it is based on. Lee's novel was first serialized on an internet forum, and after the conclusion of the series, the book was published in four hardcover volumes. The series features four different races and stars five characters, three of which are tasked with rescuing a Nhaga from its own people. Read more  ( 15 min )
    What are you playing this weekend?
    It's Friday, and you're just ticking away the moments that make up a dull day. You look at the clock constantly. Wondering when the arms will finally hit the magic five and 12 positions. And then it happens. Huzzah! Time to go home. But what are you going to do once you arrive? Take care of the yard? No, it's finally raining. Should you clean the house? Do laundry? Organize your chest of drawers? Probably, but don't do any of it. Those things can wait. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    AMD Ryzen 5000 Embedded: Up to 12 Zen 3 Cores at 105W
    IT solution provider Advantech reveals unannounced AMD Ryzen 5000 Embedded processors.  ( 61 min )
    MSI’s First Intel Graphics Card Is a Low-Profile Arc A380
    MSI-made PC systems featuring up to an Intel Core i5-12400F and Arc A380 are suitable for eSports gaming or popular internet café games titles but come with prices approaching $650.  ( 61 min )
    Intel Kills Off Exotic Packaging For Core i9-12900K, Core i9-10980XE
    Intel has killed off its exotic packaging for the Core i9-12900K and Core i9-10980XE, replacing them with smaller boxes found in its non-flagship models.  ( 61 min )
    Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Super vs AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT: Sub-$200 GPU Face-Off
    Which cheap graphics card deserves your money?  ( 69 min )
    AMD Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 Specs, Release Date Window, Benchmarks, and More
    Here's the Ryzen 7000 release date, benchmarks, specifications, pricing, and all we know about AMD's Zen 4 architecture.  ( 94 min )
    Prototype Core i9-13900K Raptor Lake Chip Blasts Off To 5.77GHz
    An Intel Core i9-13900K sample was seen clocking as high as 5.77 GHz in a recent Geekbench 5 benchmark result.  ( 60 min )
    How to Use Raspberry Pi Pico W With Node-RED
    The Raspberry Pi Pico W is cheap enough to forget about it and in this project we do just that. We build a sensor platform from the Pico W and send live data to the cloud using Node-RED to create our own web application.  ( 68 min )
    Dygma Raise Review: An Easy Split Decision
    The Dygma Raise is one of the most expensive keyboards we’ve tested, but its stellar configurability, luxury build quality, and ability to adapt to your most comfortable writing position are worth the investment.  ( 70 min )
  • Open

    The weekend’s best deals: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite, 8BitDo gamepads, and more
    Dealmaster also has discounts on the Apple Pencil, PS5 games, and Beats earbuds.  ( 10 min )
  • Open

    AMD Raphael & Jadeite + Intel Meteor Lake Audio Driver Support Playing On Linux 6.0
    Takashi Iwai of SUSE as the Linux sound subsystem maintainer has submitted all the new hardware support and feature updates targeting the Linux 6.0 merge window. The Linux 6.0 sound driver changes are notable when it comes to new AMD and Intel hardware support among other changes...  ( 5 min )
    NetBSD 9.3 Released With Better Support For Newer Intel & AMD Chipsets
    NetBSD 9.3 has been released as the newest version of this open-source BSD operating system known for running on many diverse platforms thanks to its focus oncode portability...  ( 4 min )
    ASUS Linux Driver Gets Patches For RGB Keyboard Controls
    For those with a newer ASUS gaming laptop boasting RGB lighting for the keyboard, that functionality could soon be working nicely thanks to work happening within the Linux kernel and the open-source Asusctl project...  ( 5 min )
    Intel's Open-Source Vulkan Driver Moves Closer To Working Ray-Tracing Support
    Going back to late 2020 there has been bits of Intel Vulkan ray-tracing preparations landing within their Mesa "ANV" open-source Vulkan driver in anticipation of Xe HPG with hardware ray-tracing capabilities...  ( 5 min )
    Linux 6.0 Drops Support For Old NEC VR4100 MIPS CPUs Found In The IBM WorkPad & More
    Support for old NEC VR4100 CPUs based on the MIPS R4000 core is being removed with the Linux 6.0 kernel leading to devices like the old IBM WorkPad Z50 no longer being supported...  ( 5 min )
    KDE Kicks Off August With More Desktop Bug Fixes
    KDE developers have started the month of August to a lot of fixes and polishing for the Plasma desktop...  ( 4 min )
    OpenJ9 v0.33 Released For Eclipse's High Performance JVM
    OpenJ9 v0.33 was released on Friday as the newest version of this Eclipse Foundation Java Virtual Machine (JVM) that was formerly developed by IBM...  ( 4 min )
    OpenRISC Enables PCI Support With Linux 6.0
    While OpenRISC has been around a decade longer than RISC-V and its original support in the Linux kernel dates back to the v3.1 days, on the hardware side OpenRISC hasn't enjoyed nearly as much success as RISC-V and its kernel support not advancing nearly as rapidly. Now with Linux 6.0, OpenRISC is finally exposing PCI bus support...  ( 4 min )
  • Open

    Activision Blizzard's mobile games make more money than console and PC sales combined
    More than half of Activision Blizzard's revenue came from mobile games in April - June (Q2) 2022. According to Activision Blizzard's most recent financial report, the developer/publisher generated £535m from its PC and console sales in Q2 2022 - £275m ($332m) on PC and £310m ($376m) consoles - while £688m ($831m) came from its "mobile and ancillary" business, which the company says "primarily include[s] revenues from mobile devices". That's more than 50 per cent of its entire net revenue for the period. Part of this, of course, is because Activision acquired mobile developer King in 2016 - and right now, it's the most successful part of ABK's business - but it's likely not coincidental that Diablo Immortal released during this period, too (thanks, PC Gamer). Read more  ( 15 min )
    GameStop NFT "creator" is suspended for selling NFTs of indie games they didn't own
    An NFT minter on GameStop's newly launched NFT marketplace has been caught selling games they didn't make and had no authority to sell. As first reported by Ars Technica, the "interactive NFTs" of the NiFTy Arcade collection were being minted and sold without the creators' permission, "much less any arrangement for the creators to share in any crypto profits". GameStop has since confirmed that the person behind NiFTy Arcade has been suspended, but Ars reports that he is still "holding onto the tends of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency he made by selling those NFTs before the suspension". Furthermore, the unlicensed games are also still fully accessible from GameStop's servers. Read more  ( 16 min )
    BBC Proms' game music concert is now available on BBC iPlayer
    A concert celebrating video game music at this year's BBC Proms is now available to watch online. The annual music festival is held each summer in London's Royal Albert Hall, but this is the first time the classical music festival has featured a concert dedicated to game music. The event - titled Gaming Prom – From 8-Bit to Infinity - took place earlier this week, hosted by BBC gaming reporter Steffan Powell and Louise Blain, who hosts the excellent Sound of Gaming podcast on BBC Sounds. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Nemesis is Numskull's next Resident Evil collectible figurine
    Gaming merchandiser Numskull has confirmed the next addition to its Resident Evil statue line-up: Nemesis. Standing 10.9 inches (27.7cm) high, the Nemesis figurine includes "hand-painted features for extra detail" - including the cracked tarmac base and hazard tape - and has been developed in conjunction with Capcom. You can see him in all his grotesque glory in the video reveal below: Read more  ( 15 min )
    PUBG dev is creating an "ambitious" new fantasy game based upon the Korean novel, The Bird That Drinks Tears
    PUBG developer Krafton has announced it's making a new game based upon the Korean fantasy book, The Bird That Drinks Tears. Krafton says it is an "ambitious project" that "aims to bring the original fantasy universe of The Bird That Drinks Tears to life through its unique and refreshing fantasy races, beautiful, haunting landscapes, and gripping, immersive, and poignant stories". "The Bird That Drinks Tears is a novel series that was created and written by Yeong-do Lee, who is widely acknowledged as the pioneer of the Korean fantasy genre," Krafton explains. "As one of the best-selling fantasy authors in Korea with millions of copies sold, Mr. Lee is an exceptionally imaginative writer who builds elaborate worlds and fills them with complex characters." Read more  ( 15 min )
    Find out more about Redfall at QuakeCon
    Bethesda has confirmed that Arkane's new vampire game, Redfall, will get a 30-minute slot at its upcoming QuakeCon event. QuakeCon itself is set to kick off at 6pm UK time on 18th August, whilst the Redfall-flavoured reveal will run for 30 minutes from 6.15pm and "takes you inside [Arkane's] upcoming squad-based vampire shooter with new insights, gameplay details and more!" Other games set to feature in the presentation include The Elder Scrolls Online, Fallout 76, Fallout 4, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Deathloop, and Quake, of course. There'll also be Q&As, quizzes, cosplay, and more. Read more  ( 15 min )
    PUBG: Battlegrounds' update 19.1 is coming to PC next week
    PUBG: Battlegrounds' next big update, 19.1, is slated to release on 10th August for PC and 18th August for consoles. It includes a new MP9 weapon - the first fully-automatic SMG that uses 9mm - a new vehicle that will see you "zipping down roads with sirens ablaze" (so not for the stealthy, it seems), and the Blue Chip Detector tactical gear which uses primary weapon slots but can be used to scan for enemies within a 100m radius; you'll see the nearest 12 enemies on the map. We'll also get our collective hands on the brand-new 1500hp Folding Shield and "once again have the opportunity to drop onto the Haven map". The update also brings "familiar foes" from the recently-announced Assassin's Creed season. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Can we really only be wowed by something once?
    There's something I keep thinking about lately. It's this idea that we only have so much space in our minds for formative gaming experiences and it's diminishing returns forever after. I was talking to a guy in a pub about it, who overheard a conversation I was having with someone else and leaped in, delighted to talk to someone, anyone, about games. It was quite endearing. And it was while talking about older games and remakes he said: I don't think anything will ever be as good as the original Deus Ex. On the one hand, that's fair enough - the old Deus Ex was good, and it was a proper moment for games when people realised RPGs and FPSs could work together. It's not that which bothered me. Read more  ( 17 min )
  • Open

    Netflix släpper ett VR-doftande multiplayer-spel baserat på Squid Game
    Bläckfiskar och chill.  ( 6 min )
    Nu finns det en fan-remaster av det osläppta Warcraft Adventures
    Högupplösta orcher.  ( 6 min )
    Steam får nu officiellt Joy-Con-stöd
    Nintendo + Steam = Sant  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Proton Experimental gets Halo Infinite working plus Airborne Kingdom
    Hot on the heels of Proton 7.0-4 getting a Release Candidate, Valve has put up a new build of Proton Experimental and it's quite an exciting one. This is the special version of Proton you can try, that often pulls in new features and fixes earlier to get more Windows games working on Linux desktop and Steam Deck.  ( 4 min )
  • Open

    Partnertillverkare tveksamma till Intel Arc "Alchemist"
    Igor's Lab rapporterar om hur branschen mottar Intel Arc. Ointresse och skepsis sammanfattar situationen bra.  ( 6 min )
    Helgsnack: När byter du ut din kringutrustning?
    Hamrar du på tangentbordet och snurrar på scrollhjulet tills de är utnötta, eller lockar nya prylar och uppgraderingar oftare? Helgens snack handlar om kringutrustning!  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Comic for 2022.08.06 - Straight Up
    New Cyanide and Happiness Comic  ( 5 min )

  • Open

    Microsoft trackers run afoul of DuckDuckGo, get added to blocklist
    Search privacy company still needs Bing, but won't allow Microsoft's trackers.  ( 5 min )
    Cyberattack on Albanian government suggests new Iranian aggression
    Tehran-linked hack of a NATO member is a significant escalation.  ( 5 min )
    Fecal fountains: CDC warns of diarrheal outbreaks linked to poopy splash pads
    Whatever you do, don't get the water in your mouth.  ( 7 min )
    Formula E’s most successful racer shares his ideas on racing technology
    After 8 years, 100 races, and nearly 1,000 points, Lucas di Grassi knows his stuff.  ( 5 min )
    Sonic the Hedgehog doesn’t need easily legible legends on his mechanical keyboard
    Retro keyboards commemorate some of Sega's most memorable brands.  ( 5 min )
    Twitter says Musk’s spam analysis used tool that called his own account a bot
    Twitter files answer to Musk's counterclaims in case over broken merger deal.  ( 6 min )
    As losses mount, Astra announces a radical pivot to a larger launch vehicle
    "We've made a few key decisions."  ( 5 min )
    This 6-inch board turns a Raspberry Pi module into a DIY router
    This $55 module could put a homebrew router into the palm of your hand (literally).  ( 4 min )
    Amazon buys Roomba maker for $1.7 billion
    Amazon says it wants to help customers handle chores like vacuuming.  ( 5 min )
    Rocket Report: SpaceX launches Korea to the Moon, Georgia’s litigious spaceport
    "Union Carbide most certainly has a contract with Camden."  ( 6 min )
    Indie devs outraged by unlicensed game sales on GameStop’s NFT market
    It may be impossible to remove the games from the IPFS blockchain.  ( 5 min )
    “Huge flaw” threatens US emergency alert system, DHS researcher warns
    Hackers can disrupt legit warnings or issue fake ones of their own.  ( 5 min )
    Evo weekend is here: How to watch the fighting game event of the year
    The world's largest fighting game tournament is live all weekend long.  ( 7 min )
  • Open

    Best PC Builds for Gaming: From Sub $500 Budgets to $3000+
    Whether you’re spending $500 or $4,000 on components, we’ve picked out the perfect parts for your next PC build.  ( 74 min )
    New RTX 4080 Leak Drops Core Count Below 10,000, 40-Series Titan Rumors
    A new RTX 4080 rumor was just Tweeted out, suggesting the previous 10,000+ CUDA core count for the 4080 was wrong. The estimated core count now sits at 9728.  ( 61 min )
    AMD, Intel, Nvidia Slow Hirings as Economy Falters
    Major technological players AMD, Intel and Nvidia have all reduced their pace of new hires in context of the worldwide economic downturn.  ( 61 min )
    Steam Beta Allows PC Gamers to Use Nintendo Joy-Con Controllers
    If you have a Nintendo Switch in the house, you now have two spare Bluetooth PC game controllers. Available in the beta client for now, alongside improved Nintendo Online Classic controller support.  ( 60 min )
    AMD Zen 4 Specs Leak: 16-Core Ryzen 9 7950X Allegedly Hits 5.7 GHz
    Hardware leaker reveals the specifications for AMD's forthcoming Ryzen 7000 (Raphael) processors based on the Zen 4 microarchitecture.  ( 65 min )
    Best Wireless Mouse 2022: Premium Productivity Mice
    Looking for the best wireless mouse for productivity? These are our top picks for cable-free work.  ( 81 min )
    AMD Ryzen 7000 Zen 4 CPUs, AM5 Motherboards Launching September 15
    AMD Ryzen 7000 and AM5 motherboards are confirmed to be launching on September 15th, just a month away from now.  ( 60 min )
    TSMC Comments on Intel 3nm Order Rumors: Nothing Has Changed
    TSMC denies any changes with N3 expansion plans.  ( 60 min )
    Corsair’s RM750 PSU Is Back Down to $99: Real Deals
    Power your rig with a Corsair RM750 (2021) PSU for $99. Get a powerful heart for your PC for less.  ( 67 min )
    Raspberry Pi Gives 80s-Era Typewriter a New Lease on Life
    Ingenuous hacker uses Raspberry Pi and Arduino boards to output a Linux Terminal on a typewriter form the '80s.  ( 60 min )
    Intel Confirms Poor Arc GPU DX11 Performance Is a Work in Progress
    Intel's poor performance on its Arc GPUs surrounding DirectX 11 games, will be a constant issue, that will take a lot of time to work out.  ( 62 min )
    Google and GloFo to Collaborate in Open-Source Chip-Making Venture
    The partners are encouraging students, hobbyists, engineers, start ups and others to bring the spark of open-source innovation to the hardware realm.  ( 60 min )
    HighPoint Readies Next-Gen SSD Card With Up to 55GBps Throughput
    HighPoint's SSD7749E E1.S RAID card promises extreme speeds and extreme capacities for workstations and servers.  ( 60 min )
    Raspberry Pi Twitch TV Plays Streams When They Go Live
    Rsheldiii (aka Bob) is using a Raspberry Pi to power his custom, 3D-printed TV that plays Twitch streams automatically as soon as they’re live.  ( 58 min )
    Asus ROG Strix Z690-A Gaming WIFI D4 Review: ROG’s Silver Bullet?
    The Z690-A GAMING WIFI D4 is the least-expensive route to a ROG-based board. It sports a unique silver appearance and comes handsomely appointed. You get capable VRMs, four M.2 sockets with six SATA ports, quality audio and integrated Wi-Fi 6. But priced at just over $320, it’s pricier than its peers.  ( 67 min )
    Best Raspberry Pi Deals 2022
    You can find savings on Raspberry Pi products and accessories for your Pi projects or as gifts for the maker in your life.  ( 61 min )
    Best 3D Printer Deals 2022
    Here are the best cheap 3D printers available today.  ( 62 min )
    Best Alienware and Dell Deals: Cheap Aurora Gaming PCs and XPS Laptops
    Dell often drops impressive PC and laptop deals, from the latest and greatest Alienware gaming rigs to XPS laptops.  ( 60 min )
    Vendors Show Off First X670, X670E AM5 Motherboards for Zen 4 CPUs
    Asus, ASRock, Biostar, Gigabyte, and MSI reveal upcoming AM5 motherboards for AMD's Ryzen 7000-series Zen 4 (Raphael) processors.  ( 66 min )
  • Open

    Nomad to crypto thieves: Please give us back 90%, keep 10% as a reward. Deal?
    The Feds may see things differently Cryptocurrency bridge Nomad sent a message to the looters who drained nearly $200 million in tokens from its coffers earlier this week: return at least 90 percent of the ill-gotten gains, keep 10 percent as a bounty for discovering the security flaw, and Nomad will consider this a "white-hat" hack, as opposed to plain old theft, and not take legal action.…  ( 4 min )
    Too little, too late: Intel's legacy is eroding
    Can Pat stop the rot – or is the chip giant facing a Kodak moment? Comment  Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger's carefully assembled house of cards is collapsing around him. And it's not really that surprising when you look at the hand he's been dealt.…  ( 7 min )
    Warning! Critical flaws found in US Emergency Alert System
    DEF CON may be about to blow lid off security hole The US government is warning of critical vulnerabilities in its Emergency Alert System (EAS) systems that, if exploited, could enable intruders to send fake alerts out over television, radio, and cable networks.…  ( 5 min )
    Fancy a freshened up SLAX or ChromeOS replacement Peppermint OS?
    Two lightweight distros get updated after extended pauses Slax, one of the lightest-weight Linux distros around, and Peppermint OS, a web-centric Debian remix, both put out new versions this week.…  ( 5 min )
    Amazon buys Roomba maker iRobot for $1.7b
    Bezos empire continues to clean up, but did it pick the proper postulates? Updated  Megacorp Amazon wants to buy iRobot, a company that is best known for its Roomba autonomous vacuum cleaner.…  ( 5 min )
    Flash memory vendors unveil PCIe 5.0 SSDs, latest spec for CXL interconnect tech
    Folk of flash meet in person as Compute Express Link 3.0 debuts Flash Memory Summit  The Flash Memory Summit 2022 was held as an in-person event again this week for the first time since 2019, at the Santa Clara Convention Center San Francisco, showcasing the latest developments in memory and storage.…  ( 6 min )
    Scientist shares spicy pic of 'James Webb' discovery
    Set hyperdrives for the Chorizos system ... oh actually it's baloney A French scientist's spicy tweet fooled the internet into believing a slice of chorizo was a detailed picture of a star captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. …  ( 5 min )
    Major IT outage forces UK emergency call handlers to use 'pen and paper'
    Suspected cyberattack at Advanced takes down part of server estate that hosted range of apps Updated  Tech services provider Advanced has taken part of its infrastructure offline as it tries to contain a suspected security incident, with a range of hosted applications not available to health customers, including NHS 111 emergency services.…  ( 5 min )
    Virgin Galactic delays commercial suborbital flights again
    Buys up land to train and entertain space tourists when they do start Virgin Galactic (VG) is once again delaying its commercial service, shifting the expected launch of well-to-do space tourists from the first three months of 2023 to Q2, amid widening losses for the business.…  ( 5 min )
    Intel close to deal for semiconductor plant in Italy
    Chip giant's efforts to building production capacity outside of Asia gains steam Updated  Intel is preparing to close a deal worth at least $5 billion that will see the chip giant build a semiconductor plant in Italy.…  ( 5 min )
    China-linked fake news site shows disinformation on the rise
    Beijing-backed PR firm is behind at least 72 ersatz web titles, Mandiant says A Beijing-backed PR firm has been accused of being behind at least 72 fake-news websites and social media accounts pushing pro-China propaganda and criticizing the US and its allies. …  ( 5 min )
    Enough with the notifications! Focus Assist will shut them u… 'But I'm too important!'
    An app will always find a way to interrupt what you’re doing Something for the Weekend  Mme D and I are in the cellar, listening intently. Nothing.…  ( 8 min )
    Be careful where you install software, and who installs it
    I have bigger problems than where you put our code On Call  Be careful where you install stuff, and who is doing the installing. Welcome to an On Call in which normal service is interrupted by a military intervention.…  ( 4 min )
    Claims of AI sentience branded 'pure clickbait'
    Stanford academics peeved over LaMDA chatbot brouhaha AI chatbots are not sentient – they have just got better at tricking humans into thinking they might be, experts at Stanford University conclude.…  ( 5 min )
    Critical flaws found in four Cisco SMB router ranges – for the second time this year
    At least Switchzilla thinks they're salvageable, unlike the boxes it ordered binned back in June Cisco has revealed four of its small business router ranges have critical flaws – for the second time in 2022 alone.…  ( 5 min )
    South Korea's lunar orbiter launches and phones home happily
    Moon probe will play BTS to test space internet. Also for fun South Korea's first lunar orbiter, which is about to test disruption-tolerant, network-based space communications, successfully made contact with its Australian ground station after launching on Thursday.…  ( 5 min )
    Citrix adds Hypervisor Cloud to bring more and faster updates
    Years after the company quit server virtualization, but may be handy for hybrid work Citrix has added a development stream to its hypervisor that promises fast and frequent enhancements, plus a cloud service to deliver them to users.…  ( 4 min )
    China's internet companies are decelerating cloud consumption, says Alibaba
    Starts chasing industrial digitization as its next big opportunity Alibaba's cloud operation thinks it's reached market saturation among China's big internet companies, but sees a new wave of demand coming from industrial outfits.…  ( 4 min )
    GitLab U-turns on deleting dormant projects after backlash
    Now makes vague pledge to shove inactive repos into slow object storage Updated  GitLab has reversed its decision to automatically delete projects that are inactive for more than a year and belong to its free-tier users.…  ( 5 min )
    Bloke robbed of $800,000 in cryptocurrency by fake wallet app wants payback from Google
    I got played via the Play store Last October, California resident Jacob Pearlman downloaded an Android version of a cryptocurrency wallet app called Phantom from the Google Play app store.…  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Proton 7.0-4 is coming to bring more compatibility to Linux and Steam Deck
    Valve are preparing to ship the next version of Proton, their compatibility layer that runs Windows games on Steam Deck and Linux desktop with Proton 7.0-4 having a Release Candidate ready to test.  ( 5 min )
    Top quick Steam Deck tips and tricks
    Since Valve are ramping up production and a ton more people than expected will get their Steam Deck this year, plus the expansion into Asia, it was a good time to get some basic quick tips and tricks sorted for you.  ( 6 min )
    Open source game development advances with Godot Engine 3.5 out now
    Godot Engine, the free and open source full game development engine has a big new release available with version 3.5.  ( 4 min )
    PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3 gets Save States support
    A huge advancement for the PlayStation 3 emulator project RPCS3 as it now has support for RPCS3, which is pretty awesome.  ( 4 min )
    Valve spoke to IGN Japan about the Steam Deck, here's a few takeaway points
    As Valve expands the Steam Deck into Asia, they've begun a series of interviews and one on video with IGN Japan was quite interesting so here's the main points.  ( 5 min )
    Steam adds support for Nintendo Joy-Con controllers in Beta
    Steam is ever-improving and constantly expanding what is supported by Steam Input. Just recently they added a new Steam Client Beta with support for the Nintendo Joy-Con controllers.  ( 4 min )
    Crypt of the Necrodancer: SYNCHRONY DLC released into Early Access
    A pleasant surprise for Crypt of the Necrodancer fans! SYNCHRONY, a new DLC for Necrodancer, released today into early access.  ( 4 min )
    Claim the fun and challenging Frick, Inc. from Kenney FREE for 24 hours
    Frick, Inc. is an amusing game with a name that's slightly silly because it's fricking frustrating too. The developer, Kenney, has made it free to grab on itch.io for 24 hours.  ( 4 min )
  • Open

    Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak showcasing first big update next week
    Monster Hunter Rise, in both its Switch and PC forms, is fab - Eurogamer called it "as good as video games can get" - and its Sunbreak expansion is perhaps even better. More, then, is an extremely welcome proposition, and we'll soon know exactly what's in store for Sunbreak's first major post-launch update when it's newly announced livestream airs next week. Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak's incoming digital event will be hosted by producer Ryozo Tsujimoto and game director Yoshitake Suzuki, with proceedings due to begin on Twitch next Tuesday, 9th August, at 3pm BST/7am PDT. Capcom has already teased a little of what's to come in August's Title Update 1, with the Seething Bazelguese and Lucent Nargacuga (from Monster Hunter World: Iceborne and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate respectively) both confirmed as new monster additions to the line-up, while the Forlorn Arena will be added as a new locale. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Latest Sonic Origins patch takes aim at Sonic the Hedgehog 2's wonky Tails AI
    Sega has released another round of fixes for Sonic Origins, its disappointing collection of classic Sonic platformers, this time taking aim at Sonic the Hedgehog 2's troublesome Tails AI. Sonic Origins was, to put it politely, a bit of a mess when it launched earlier this year, and was plagued with enough presentational and technical issues - as extensively documented by Digital Foundry's John Linneman - that its developer hit out at publisher Sega, saying it "very unhappy" at the state it had been launched in. Since then, Sega has been working to fix some of the game's more egregious problems, and its latest patch - officially known as update 1.04 - leads with an attempt to remedy an widely reported AI issue that would repeatedly cause Tails to goes off-screen in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, unable to rejoin the action. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Face-Off: MultiVersus vs Super Smash Bros Ultimate
    The Super Smash Bros series is a near-impossible act to follow, but that's exactly the challenge MultiVersus faces as a new, free to play Smash-like from developer Player First Games. Now in open beta on PS5, Xbox Series X, last-gen and PC, it's a 5GB download that lets anyone hop in. It's admittedly light on options - as you may expect from an open beta - but you do get to tinker with 17 characters - all fully voice-acted. Crucially, MultiVersus also launches with robust online play, built from the ground up with rollback netcode - right away giving it an edge over Super Smash Bros Ultimate's online play on Switch. It's off to a good start. Speaking purely on MultiVersus' visual design though as an Unreal Engine 4 title, how much does it get right next to Nintendo's heavyweight? And where…  ( 19 min )
    Steam now officially supports Switch's Joy-Con controllers
    Valve continues to tinker behind the scenes with Steam and its latest client beta has officially introduced support for Nintendo's Switch Joy-Con controllers. As such, those with a preference for Nintendo's dual-handed clutch capsules will now be able to use them across their PC games in a number of different configurations. There's support for individual Joy-Cons, which can be used as mini gamepad, and two controllers can also be combined into pairs - as is the case on Switch - for a more traditional controller configuration. Read more  ( 14 min )
    EA put Liverpool star Diogo Jota's 'gamer' celebration in FIFA 23
    This one's a bit Inception: EA has put Liverpool star Diogo Jota's real life 'gamer' celebration in FIFA 23 - a celebration that sees Jota mimicking himself playing FIFA. Background: one of my favourite video game stories of 2021 was the time when Jota had to quit a FIFA 22 tournament early to play a real-life match that afternoon - and performed a gamer celebration after scoring after just 97 seconds. Jota celebrated by sitting down and pretending to play FIFA. (Jota continued his impressive form in front of goal by adding a second goal later in the first half. Liverpool went on to win 4-0.) Read more  ( 16 min )
    Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's unmissable second DLC polishes some of the series' best tracks
    Nintendo has finally delivered its second dollop of downloadable tracks for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and it's a doozy. Some of Mario Kart's finest moments are included here, alongside a few other enjoyable additions, throwbacks, and a brand-new entry. As with the first wave, Nintendo has added eight courses divided into two cups. (Sadly, there's still no sign of extra kart pieces or characters, including Birdo.) And if you're not up to speed (sorry), players have already worked out what many other upcoming DLC courses will likely be. Up first is New York Minute, a lively track from mobile game Mario Kart Tour's roster featuring a checklist of city landmarks. I'll get this out the way now - I am not enamoured with Mario Kart Tour, and the Mushroom Kingdom purist in me bristles at the inclusion of real-world cities. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Weekly 12: The Red Dead Online problem, morgues and so much more
    Another Friday, another Weekly - the show where we recap the week on Eurogamer for you. Remember, premium supporters listen from Friday whereas everyone else listens from Monday. Today, we've got former Eurogamer writer Emma Kent back! And it turns out that since moving on from Eurogamer, she's rediscovered a passion for football. And she's thrown herself so fully into it that she'll soon be in the FA Cup! She's also been turning out some great pieces for us, including two State of the Game pieces - one on Valheim and one, more recently, on Red Dead Online. And it's that that we dive into first today. Read more  ( 14 min )
    This Mario 64 first-person horror game is terrifying
    You step quietly into the castle, holding a lantern aloft in your gloved hand. You creep up the stairs into a room of stained glass windows. Then, turning to leave, the horrific ghost of Princess Peach lurches through the doorway to scare the crap out of you. Game Over. Another Princess Is In Our Castle is a horror game based on the N64 classic Super Mario 64 that has you exploring Peach's famous castle in first person, spotted by Nintendo Life. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Breeze through Elden Ring with Sekiro's final boss moveset
    Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is arguably FromSoftware's most difficult game, but now you can use that to your advantage in Elden Ring. Modder Hotbite has ported over animations from Sekiro's final boss, so now your Tarnished can adventure through The Lands Between with some incredibly flashy moves - spotted by PC Gamer. Spoilers for Sekiro's final boss follow. Read more  ( 15 min )
    New study claims Belgium's loot box law isn't being enforced
    Back in 2018, Belgium declared loot boxes in games were a form of gambling and therefore illegal, but it appears this law isn't being enforced. Loot box researcher Leon Y Xiao has written a report stating the country's gambling law regulation of video game loot boxes has been ineffective, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz. Despite the ban, paid loot boxes remained widespread in the top 100 grossing iPhone games in Belgium from 2021, with 82 percent including some form of random monetisation mechanic. Read more  ( 14 min )
    New developer kit from Microsoft improves Xbox Series S memory
    A new game development kit (GDK) for the Xbox Series S will "optimise" the console's memory allocation, Microsoft has revealed. "Hundreds of additional megabytes of memory are now available to Xbox Series S developers," explained the game dev team in a new video (see below) all about the GDK's updates (thanks, The Verge). Microsoft says this will give developers "more control over memory", and as such will allow for "[improved] graphics performance in memory-constrained conditions." So, good news indeed. Read more  ( 15 min )
    The best Warhammer 40k games to play in 2022
    In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war... and if Games Workshop has its way, plenty of Warhammer 40,000 video games to play. The sci-fi tabletop universe is enjoying a video game boom, with a handful of great games set within its very grim and very dark universe launched in recent years. Where there was nothing but an endless stream of mediocre Warhammer 40,000 games to play, like the terrifying Tyranids, the genre has adapted, improved and launched yet another wave, better than what came before. Below you can find our recommendations for the best Warhammer 40,000 games! Read more  ( 21 min )
    Overwatch 2 won't have another public beta
    Overwatch 2 will not hold any more public betas before its full release in two months. Blizzard exec Jon Spector tweeted the news last night, in response to questions from fans on whether another test period would take place. "While we will continue testing OW2 daily internally, we're not planning any additional public beta tests," Spector wrote. "With all the valuable feedback we received from our alpha and two public beta tests, we will be focusing our efforts on launching the best game possible on 4th Oct." Read more  ( 15 min )
    Life is Strange developer "can't imagine" going back to episodic model
    The Life is Strange series will not return to its original episodic model, developer Deck Nine has suggested. Speaking to Rock, Paper, Shotgun, senior narrative designer Philip Lawrence said the decision to launch last year's entry True Colors as a complete experience was "the right decision", and one the studio wanted to stick with. "I can't imagine we'd go back to the episodic model," Lawrence said. "The reaction has been very positive." Read more  ( 15 min )
    Naughty Dog releases new The Last of Us Part 1 comparison
    Ahead of its release this September, Naughty Dog has been slowly sharing little snippets from The Last of Us Part 1 for PlayStation 5 and comparing it to the PS4 Remastered edition of the game. The latest example of this sees Joel on horseback, as the screen slides between the PS4 and PS5 versions of the same scene. "Get ready to hit the dusty trail for a beautiful - and dangerous - journey across America in The Last of Us Part 1," Naughty Dog proclaimed in its tweet with the footage, which you can see below. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Fans unhappy with Tactics Ogre: Reborn remaster price, visual changes
    Yesterday Square Enix officially announced the forthcoming release of Tactics Ogre: Reborn, a remaster of the PSP remake of SNES game Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. However, some fans are unhappy with both graphical changes and the cost of the remake. The pixel art of the original has been smoothed out which gives a rounded effect, while the text has been sharpened with a new font. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Looks like Assassin's Creed Valhalla is getting Iron Man and Thanos armour
    Assassin's Creed Valhalla fans may soon be able to wield the godly powers of Thanos and Tony Stark, according to leaked details found in the game's files. Dataminer AndyReloads has already filmed himself strutting around like Iron Man in a new suit of armour that lets you wield a chest laser akin to Stark's own arc reactor. The design of the armour, and especially the colouring, are obviously Iron Man-themed. But - thankfully - you're not actually Iron Man, and the rest of the design bears resemblence to those warn by the series' technological Isu race. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Square Enix feared Western studios "cannibalised" sales of Japanese games
    Square Enix has released its latest financial results, detailing a rise in MMO sales thanks to Final Fantasy 14 despite an overall decline. However, comments have also emerged from an internal conference call concerning the financial report, courtesy of analyst David Gibson. The sale of Square Enix's western studios - notably Crystal Dynamics and Eidos - was "driven by concerns that the titles cannibalised sales of the rest of the group", with the company aiming to improve capital efficiency. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Latest Vampire Survivors patch adds cheat codes and new characters to the fray
    We're still not quite at the 1.0 release for Vampire Survivors, but we are at least now one step closer. Following on from the recent release of patch 0.9, developer Poncle has now released patch 0.10.0 for the game, or in its words, "The Not One" patch. You can see a teaser for it below. This patch brings with it a host of new content, such as new characters Cosmo Pavone and Big Trousers. Players will also now be able to get two new achievements, a new Arcana and a new weapon. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Final Fantasy 14 still keeping Square Enix afloat amid declining financial results
    Final Fantasy 14 remains the darling of Square Enix's output as the publisher announces declining financial results in its latest report. Total net sales from the last financial quarter (April to June) were 74.8bn yen, a drop of almost 16 percent compared to the same period last year, while operating income was 14.4bn yen, a drop of almost 17 percent. Net income actually rose due to foreign exchange gains. However, while net sales of HD games has declined year on year, sales of MMO games have conversely risen year on year. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Kirby's 30th anniversary concert will be livestreamed next week
    More information has been released regarding Kirby's 30th anniversary live concert, and how fans outside of Japan can take their seat remotely. First announced in March, the concert will be held at Tokyo Garden Theatre on 11th August at 6pm local time in Japan. For UK fans that's 10am, and you'll be able to stream it via YouTube and start your Thursday off with some Grammy-worthy tunes. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC music leak points to many future tracks
    Music files found in the latest Mario Kart 8 Deluxe update point to many of the upcoming, unannounced DLC tracks due over the coming 18 months. Even better - for those of us who like peeking inside our Christmas presents a little early - these files line up with a previous leak which appeared to identify the specific platforms for each upcoming DLC course. Now, fans have put together what they think is a schedule for the remaining DLC cups, including all of the tracks from Wave 3, expected later this year. Read more  ( 15 min )
    What we've been playing
    Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've found ourselves playing over the last few days. This time: exercise, werewolves, and escape rooms. If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive. I have now been part of the Eurogamer team for six wonderful months (woo). However, as a result of this new full-time position my physical activity levels have decreased somewhat (boo). Read more  ( 17 min )
    Microsoft begins Insider testing for Xbox Game Pass family plan
    Cast your mind back to March and you might recall reports claiming Microsoft was working on a new family plan for Game Pass. Those reports, it now transpires, were true, and an Insider Preview test of the new scheme is available now in an extremely limited number of countries. As detailed in a new Microsoft blog post, the Xbox Insider trial version of the scheme will enable anyone with a special Insider Preview Game Pass plan to invite up to four people to share that subscription, with each one then gaining unique access to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate's full selection of games, content, and benefits. The immediate catch right now is that the test is only available to those in Colombia and Ireland. And while the people being added to a subscription by Insiders don't need to be an Insider themselves, they do need a Microsoft account and must be in the same country. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Here's a first trailer for Frogwares' Sherlock Holmes and Lovecraft remake The Awakened
    Following last week's announcement that Frogwares - the developer behind the likes of Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One and The Sinking City - is remaking its 2007 Sherlock/Lovecraft crossover The Awakened, the studio has released a first cinematic trailer for the project, which is seeking Kickstarter funding right now. The Awakened, if you're unfamiliar, was the third instalment in a series of Frogwares-developed Sherlock Holmes investigatory adventures that has so far spanned nine games, pitting the Baker Street detective against Cthulhu cults and eldritch abominations across Victorian London, Switzerland, New Orleans, and the Scottish Highlands. Frogwares' remake will see the studio reimagining the title for modern audiences, drawing on its learning from the more recent Sherlock games, and retooling its story to be a continuation of the young Sherlock arc, which started in last year's Chapter One. And if you're curious to know how that might look, the developer has you covered with a new cinematic trailer in which Sherlock and Watson traverse the New Orleans bayous into a strange realm that, pleasingly, looks to share more than a few aesthetic beats with Frogwares' Lovecraftian The Sinking City. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Sämre kvartal för Square Enix, räddas delvis av Final Fantasy XIV
    Andra spel går inte alls lika bra.  ( 6 min )
    Dark Souls- och Elden Ring-regissören Hidetaka Miyazaki prisas för sitt livsverk
    Kliver in i ett finrum med andra storheter.  ( 6 min )
    Det här spelar FZ i helgen - Vad spelar du?
    Björnbestyr, pizzaälskande skölpaddor, vilsna katter med mera. Det blir en fin spelhelg.  ( 6 min )
    Stardew Valley-skaparen släpper ett litet livstecken från Haunted Chocolatier
    Vilket räcker för att få 80 000 likes.  ( 6 min )
    Diskutera - Vilka sidor ogillar du hos dina favoritspel?
    Kloakbanor? Blå skal? Gummiskepp i Kingdom Hearts? Även solen har sina fläckar.  ( 6 min )
    FZ Play ikväll - Skolstart i Two Point Campus
    Klockan ringer in för Mirror_Hime.  ( 5 min )
    Äger 5 %, nu rapporteras Tencent vara på jakt efter större andel Ubisoft-aktier
    Ska vara i kontakt med Ubisofts grundare.  ( 6 min )
    Quakecons schema kommer med Redfall – men inte Starfield
    18 augusti startar det digitala eventet.  ( 6 min )
    Tillsammans klarade FZ-forumet 249 spel under juli – rekord!
    Antalet unika spel: 217. Nästan-rekord. Vi lägger skulden på Stray.  ( 6 min )
    Ingen mer Overwatch 2-beta inför releasen, meddelar Blizzard
    Blizzard vill fokusera på annat.  ( 6 min )
    Minne frigörs i Xbox Series S, kan gynna grafiken
    Utvecklare har meddelats.  ( 6 min )
    Xbox har börjat testa en familjeprenumeration för Game Pass
    Men än så länge bara i Colombia och på Irland.  ( 6 min )
    Sherlock Holmes The Awakened nådde sitt Kickstarter-mål på sex timmar
    Spana in trailern för denna remake.  ( 6 min )
    Cyber Heist är det nya DLC:t till The Ascent – första trailern är här
    Nya uppdrag, nya platser och närstridsvapen!  ( 6 min )
    Livstecken! Beyond Good & Evil 2 får en ny lead writer
    Sarah Arellano har bland annat jobbat med World of Warcraft.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    DreamWorks Animation To Open-Source MoonRay Renderer
    DreamWorks Animation announced today that they intend to release their MoonRay production renderer as open-source softwate later in 2022. DreamWorks' MoonRay renderer has been used for films such as How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, The Bad Guys, Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, and other animated films...  ( 4 min )
    Rust For Linux Kernel v9 Patches Trim Things Down Greatly For Easier Upstreaming
    Earlier this week saw the Rust for Linux v8 patches posted that introduced a number of new abstractions and expanding the Rust programming language integration to more areas of the kernel. Those patches amounted to 43.6k lines of new code while "Rust for Linux v9" was posted today and comes in at just 12.5k lines of new code...  ( 5 min )
    AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U: ACPI Platform Profile Low-Power vs. Balanced vs. Performance
    As with many new Intel/AMD laptops these days, the recently launched Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen3 with AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U "Rembrandt" SoC boasts ACPI Platform Profile support that is exposed under Linux for switching between low-power, balanced (default), and performance modes. For those curious about this ACPI Platform Profile impact, here are some benchmarks from this 6850U laptop under Ubuntu Linux and its impact on power and thermal efficiency too.  ( 5 min )
    GNU Binutils 2.39 Released - ELF Linker Now Warns If A Stack Is Made Executable
    Following the release of GNU Glibc 2.36 earlier this week, GNU Binutils 2.39 released today for this common set of binary utilities on open-source systems...  ( 4 min )
    Dbus-Broker Working On AppArmor Support, Opening The Door For Possible Ubuntu Use
    Dbus-Broker as a drop-in replacement for the reference D-Bus implementation while focused on better performance and reliability is out with a new version. Notable with this new Dbus-Broker 32 is the beginnings of AppArmor support that could open the door for Ubuntu Linux switching over to it in the future...  ( 5 min )
    Microsoft Continues Improving Its Internal Linux Distro With Another Update
    It was just over a year ago Microsoft lifted the lid further on CBL-Mariner as its internal Linux distribution used for a variety of purposes at the company from running within their Azure cloud environment to also finding use by WSL, and various other use-cases. They have continued issuing updates and expanding the capabilities of this enterprise-tasked Linux distribution...  ( 5 min )
    Linux 6.0's Perf Tooling Ready For AMD Zen 4 IBS
    Earlier this year AMD began posting Linux kernel patches for >a href="https://www.phoronix.com/news/AMD-Zen-4-IBS-Linux">Instruction Based Sampling (IBS) extensions coming with Zen 4 processors. With Linux 5.19 the Zen 4 IBS extensions landed while now with Linux 6.0 the perf tools have been updated for dealing with Zen 4 IBS...  ( 5 min )
    XFS Scalability Improvement, Other File-System Enhancements Land In Linux 6.0
    The XFS file-system may be getting up there in age but there are no signs of it slowing down but rather the opposite -- continued scalability work and performance optimizations -- as well as tacking on new features. With Linux 6.0, the mature XFS continues to age well. Separately, the EXT4 file-system updates have also landed in Linux 6.0...  ( 5 min )
    AMDVLK 2022.Q3.2 Released With Game Optimizations, Fixes CTS Failures
    AMDVLK 2022.Q3.2 was released by AMD overnight as their newest official open-source Vulkan driver release for Linux systems...  ( 4 min )
    Intel Raptor Lake Thunderbolt, CL1 Low-Power State Coming With Linux 6.0
    Greg Kroah-Hartman has submitted all of the USB and Thunderbolt driver changes targeting the Linux 6.0 kernel of which there is a lot of new hardware enablement and enhancements to existing driver support...  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Blizzard won't host a third Overwatch 2 beta test ahead of its October release
    As of today, there are only two months until Overwatch 2 is released, and if you're hoping to jump into another beta test, you will be disappointed. According to Blizzard vice president Jon Spector, the studio doesn't plan to offer a third beta before release. "We know players are eager to dive in and have seen questions about the possibility of a third public beta," said Spector on Twitter. "While we will continue testing Overwatch 2 daily internally, we're not planning any additional public beta tests." Read more  ( 16 min )
    Family Plan currently in testing for Xbox Game Pass
    Microsoft is expanding its Xbox Game Pass subscription service by offering a family plan. The option is currently in testing in Colombia, and Ireland, and Xbox Insiders can preview this plan which allows you to share Game Pass games with up to four others across the cloud, PC, and Xbox. All parties will have unique access to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate games, content, and benefits. To participate in the preview, you need to purchase the Xbox Game Pass – Insider Preview Game Pass plan in the Microsoft Store. Read more  ( 15 min )
    VG247's The Best Games Ever Podcast – Ep.11: Best game that you were ridiculously hyped for as a teen
    Goodbye England's rose May you ever grow in our hearts You were the grace that placed itself Where lives were torn apart You called out to our country And you whispered to those in pain Now you belong to heaven And the stars spell out your name As the news of Diana’s death forced itself into the homes of everyone in Great Britain, royalist tears flooding the carpets and dampening the underside of sofas, some people had other things on their minds. It takes a lot to get a teenager out of bed on a Sunday morning, and if there’s no money involved it takes even more. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Mario Kart 8 Wave 2 of DLC brings back one of the series' best tracks
    Nintendo has released Wave 2 of new and revamped tracks for the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass. As a result, one of the best tracks of the series has finally arrived. No, it’s not DK Mountain or Maple Treeway. It’s Waluigi Pinball. Wave 2 of the Booster Course Pass introduces two new cups with four new tracks each. The Turnip Cup includes tracks New York Minute (Tour), Mario Circuit 3 (SNES), Kalamari Desert (N64), and Waluigi Pinball (DS). Meanwhile, the Propeller Cup includes Sydney Sprint (Tour), Snow Land (GBA), Mushroom Gorge (Wii), and a brand-new map, Sky-High Sundae. Read more  ( 16 min )
    This Lord of the Rings Unreal Engine 5 game trailer is outstanding
    If you consider yourself a fan of fantasy, specifically the kind of fantasy written by working class British people who have sadly left this world in a boat drifting towards the sunset, then this new Lord of the Rings Unreal Engine 5 concept trailer might be right up your alley. Created as a montage of fan-made Unreal Engine 5 projects setexplicitly in Tolkien’s legendary world of orcs, elves, and hobbits, we’re taken around to a variety of famous and recognisable vistas from the story we know and love. This includes a vibrant shower, the doors to Moria, and of course the Tower of Mordor. Now, we’ve actually highlighted one of these montage concept trailers before. YouTube channel Enfant Terrible often create videos with a similar format and previously took us to the world of Bloodborne, recreated in UE5. It goes a long way in getting your imagination going, if nothing else. Also, it’s always great to see community creatives go ham with the relatively new engine, especially in universes we love. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max review: small tweaks add up to a big improvement
    The Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max has a rather cumbersome name, but a lot of that comes from this headset’s pedigree, an upgrade to a second-generation wireless headset that’s one of the best in its class. It’s more expensive, but also outright better - and it’s one of my favorite gaming headsets on the market right now. In terms of its core feature set, this new Max model is largely similar to the original Stealth 700 Gen 2. It builds on several years and other models of Turtle Beach headset, and as a result it’s pretty damn sharp in all the metrics that matter. It’s comfortable and can be worn for hours, for instance. It feels about as sturdy as a lightweight, wireless headset can be, and seems built to withstand the standard-issue wear and tear that’ll come from putting it on, hurriedly ripping it off, and tossing it to one side of the sofa - though I obviously wouldn’t exactly want to sit on it. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Play Far Cry 6, and it's DLC for free this weekend
    If, for whatever reason, your weekend plans are non-existent like me, there’s some good news. Far Cry 6, and all of it’s DLC, will be free to play this weekend until August 8. As well as that, anyone who finds themselves having fun across the Caribbean-inspired state of Yara will also be able to pick up the game with up to 60% off. This promotion will be available until August 17, and should you choose to buy the game, all of your progress from the free weekend will be carried over. Players can install the game on consoles, or via Epic, Stadia, and Ubisoft Connect now, with access being revoked on 8 August at 7pm BST / 2pm ET / 11am PT. Read more  ( 15 min )
  • Open

    Ultimate Audio Bang #23: our favourite FPS game modes
    On this week's episode of the Ultimate Audio Bang, we get all nostalgic as we pick our favourite FPS game modes over the years. It's mainly an excuse for me for me to bring up Gears Of War and it's long-forgotten Wingman mode, which I demand make a return to the series. I also learn that Hayden likes big games, big modes, and big comradery. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Descenders is a fun mountain biking game wrapped in a bland roguelike
    I don't think I like the game Descenders ostensibly is, but I enjoy playing. It's a downhill mountain biking game with dangerous speeds and even more dangerous stunts, including leaping through a ring of fire over of a moving train. This is fun. The roguelikelike campaign structure this is all built into, eh, I don't think it has added any enjoyment. But it is very fun to stack a double-backflip, slam into a rock, and watch your ragdoll corpse rocket downhill. It's a good reminder to ride whichever way you enjoy, expectations and pressures be damned. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Entertain hungry bird children in weirdo camp sim Camp Canyonwood
    My exposure to summer camps is entirely through films and games. Summer camp culture isn't as much of a thing in the UK, possibly because we're fairly happy to allow our children to learn to tie knots by themselves, by affixing each other to disused railway tracks or sick trees. In any case, the summer camps I've seen portrayed are usually unwholesome ones, because they're good horror fodder. Camp Canyonwood is a camp counsellor sim, out now in early access, where you (an bird) look after a flock of demanding smaller birds. It sounds like it would be twee, except the owner is cutting corners and you dream about a talking jackalope. I have not explored these aspects much because I am constantly trying to feed the children. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Italian folk horror Saturnalia pits you against a terrifying, weird town
    A few years ago I had to be on very strong painkillers to help me sleep, and while I didn't have more nightmares than usual, the quality of the ones I did have was markedly more weird than what I was used to. Enter Saturnalia, "a fever dream inspired in equal parts by authentic Sardinian culture and classic Italian giallo horror films". Announced a year ago and "coming soon" in 2022 to the Epic Games Store, this extremely unsettling slice of nope - but also yes - just got a new trailer. If Stanley Tucci visited this town on his quest to eat nice ravioli, his final piece to camera would be from inside an imminently-afire wicker effigy. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Fredagspanelen 262: Ryzen närmar sig och Arc får bannor
    Fredagspanelen får åter finbesök @wittwang, som tillsammans med Noelia avhandlar omsusad Ryzen 7000-lansering i september och kritiserade drivrutiner.  ( 5 min )
    Fyra spelare delar Game Pass-konto i Microsofts testlansering
    Microsofts speltjänst Game Pass följer devisen en spelare, ett abonnemang. Nu sjösätter företaget ett test där tjänsten kan delas av flera.  ( 5 min )
    Husqvarna samlar kör av robotgräsklippare för utomjordisk födelsedagshälsning
    Världens ensammaste robot Curiosity firar idag tio år på Mars. För att hylla landfarkosten brister robotgräsklippare från Husqvarna ut i sång.  ( 5 min )
    Hårdvara möter guldfisk i glasklart kombinationschassi
    Tillverkaren Metalfish gör varje dag till en spännande upplevelse, genom att kombinera akvarium och datorchassi. En produkt ingen visste behövdes.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Thorsten Alteholz: My Debian Activities in July 2022
    FTP master This month I accepted 420 and rejected 44 packages. The overall number of packages that got accepted was 422. I am sad to write the following lines, but unfortunately there are people who rather take advantage of others instead of doing a proper maintenance of their packages. So, in order to find time slots for as much packages in NEW as possible, I no longer write a debian/copyright for others. I know it is a boring task to collect the copyright information, but our policy still requires this. Of course nobody is perfect and certainly one or the other license or copyright holder can be overlooked. Luckily most of the contributors maintain their debian/copyright very thouroughly with a terrific result. On the other hand some contributors upload only some crap and demand that I e…  ( 3 min )
    Dirk Eddelbuettel: RcppXts 0.0.5 on CRAN: Routine Refreshment
    A full eight and half years (!!) since its 0.0.4 release, version 0.0.5 of RcppXts is now on CRAN. The RcppXts package demonstrates how to access the export C API of xts which we contributed a looong time ago. This release contains an accumulated small set of updates made as the CRAN Policies evolved. We now register and use the shared library routines (updates in both src/init.c and NAMESPACE), turned on continuous integration, switched it from the now disgraces service to another, adopted our portable r-ci along with r2, added badges to the README.md, updated to https URLs, and made sure the methods package (from base R) was actually imported (something Rcpp has a need for at startup). That latter part now triggered a recent email from the CRAN maintainers which prompted this release. The NEWS entries follow. Changes in version 0.0.5 (2022-08-05) Depends on xts 0.9-6 now on CRAN Exports (and documents) a number of additional functions Switch CI use to r-ci and r2u README.md, DESCRIPTION and NEWS.Rd were updated and expanded NAMESPACE import of the shared library uses registration Courtesy of my CRANberries, there is also a diffstat report for this release. A bit more information about the package is available here as well as at the GitHub repo. If you like this or other open-source work I do, you can now sponsor me at GitHub. Dirk Eddelbuettel originated on his Thinking inside the box blog. Please report excessive re-aggregation in third-party for-profit settings.  ( 3 min )
    Jamie McClelland: Fine tuning Thunderbird's end-to-end encryption
    I love that Thunderbird really tackled OpenPGP head on and incorporated it directly into the client. I know it’s been a bit rough for some users, but I think it’s a good long term investment. And to demonstrate I’ll now complain about a minor issue :). I replied to an encrypted message but couldn’t send the response using encryption. I got an error message indicating that “End-to-end encryption requires resolving certificate issues for” and it listed the recipient email address. I spent an enormous amount of time examining the recipient’s OpenPGP key. I made sure it was not expired. I made sure it was actually in my Thunderbird key store not just in my OpenPGP keychain. I made sure I had indicated that I trust it enough to use. I re-downloaded it. I eventually gave up and didn’t send the email. Then I responded to another encrypted email and it worked. What!?!? I spent more time comparing the recipients before I realized the problem was the sending address, not the recipient address. I have an OpenPGP key that lists several identities. I have a Thunderbird Account that uses the Identities feature to add several from addresses. And, it turns out that in Thunderbird, you need to indicate which OpenPGP key to use for your main account… but also for each identity. When you drill down to Manage Identities for your account, you are able to indicate which OpenPGP key you want to use for each identity. Once I indicated that each identity should use my OpenPGP key, the issue was resolved. And here’s my Thunderbird bug asking for an error message pointing to the sender address, not the recipient address.  ( 1 min )
    Jamie McClelland: Fine tuning Thunderbird's end-to-end encryption
    I love that Thunderbird really tackled OpenPGP head on and incorporated it directly into the client. I know it’s been a bit rough for some users, but I think it’s a good long term investment. And to demonstrate I’ll now complain about a minor issue :). I replied to an encrypted message but couldn’t send the response using encryption. I got an error message indicating that “End-to-end encryption requires resolving certificate issues for” … and it listed the recipient email address. I spent an enormous amount of time examining the recipient’s OpenPGP key. I made sure it was not expired. I made sure it was actually in my Thunderbird key store not just in my OpenPGP keychain. I made sure I had indicated that I trust it enough to use. I re-downloaded it. I eventually gave up and didn’t send the email. Then I responded to another encrypted email and it worked. What!?!? I spent more time comparing the recipients before I realized the problem was the sending address, not the recipient address. I have an OpenPGP key that lists several identities. I have a Thunderbird Account that uses the Identities feature to add several from addresses. And, it turns out that in Thunderbird, you need to indicate which OpenPGP key to use for your main account… but also for each identity. When you drill down to Manage Identities for your account, you are able to indicate which OpenPGP key you want to use for each identity. Once I indicated that each identity should use my OpenPGP key, the issue was resolved. And here’s my Thunderbird bug asking for an error message pointing to the sender address, not the recipient address.  ( 1 min )
  • Open

    Hell or Bust
    No content preview
  • Open

    Comic for 2022.08.05 - Millennial
    New Cyanide and Happiness Comic  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Asking Scientists Questions
    No content preview  ( 1 min )

  • Open

    US-funded breakthrough battery tech just simply handed over to China
    Licencing snafu sends American invention overseas When US national laboratories develop a new technology, Uncle Sam is supposed to ensure it is commercialized in America. But that's not what happened with what's said to be a breakthrough battery design. …  ( 5 min )
    One to watch: Open-source code that measures your exposure to CCTV
    Like a Geiger counter but for surveillance cameras With an estimated billion surveillance cameras capturing people's daily activities, chances are you're regularly recorded if you live in a densely populated area.…  ( 6 min )
    Specs leak of 5.7GHz AMD Ryzen 7000 chips with double the L2 cache
    These might be the 5nm Zen 4 desktop processors due to land this quarter AMD's Ryzen 7000 desktop processors will reportedly top 5.7 GHz in the case of the Zen giant's top-of-the-line 7950X, when they launch later this quarter.…  ( 5 min )
    Microsoft's Teams goes native on Apple, retains a human touch
    There'll be a welcome in valleys of Wales for language translation It's been a busy week for Microsoft Teams, as the Windows giant unveiled a version of the platform optimized for Apple Silicon as well as simplified human language translation for scheduled meetings.…  ( 4 min )
    Nvidia releases first Jetson AGX Orin module for production deployment
    More expensive than a Pi but with a lot more oomph, platform to be embedded in devices at the edge Nvidia is rolling out a production module of its Jetson AGX Orin platform, designed to be embedded inside devices and enable AI acceleration for a variety of applications such as robotics and edge computing.…  ( 4 min )
    Ubuntu Focal user? Expect a Jammy upgrade popup soon
    If you're on the HWE stack, you'll get the Jammy kernel* Updated  Ubuntu 20.04 is nowhere near end of life, but 22.04 is starting to hit its stride.…  ( 5 min )
    Infrastructure services giants still weighed down by clouds
    Kyndryl and DXC Technology report declining revenues and worsening bottom line Infrastructure service providers Kyndryl and DXC Technology are off to an inauspicious start in their new financial year, recording double digit revenue declines as cloud giants continue to eat into their sales.…  ( 5 min )
    HPE says $30m Solaris verdict against it didn't provide 'evidence' of copyright
    Alleges Oracle did not register the patches it claims were infringed Hewlett Packard Enterprise has come out swinging two months after a $30 million verdict against it in a long-running case, saying claims by Oracle it directly infringed copyrights in the Solaris OS are not backed by enough evidence.…  ( 4 min )
    Why you should start paying attention to CXL now
    The next server you buy will support it, but what's it good for? After more than three years of development, compute express link (CXL) is nearly here. The long-awaited interconnect tech will make its debut alongside Intel's upcoming Sapphire Rapids and AMD's Genoa processor families.…  ( 7 min )
    US aims to step up security for federal datacenters: Both physical and cyber
    Bit barns threatened by malware flingers, but fire, storms, or bad guys arriving at the sites are also bad news Proposed legislation in the US will seek to ensure greater protection for government datacenters from the threat of cyberattacks, but also physical dangers such as natural disasters and terrorism.…  ( 5 min )
    Taiwanese military reports DDoS in wake of Pelosi visit
    Controversial visit to Taiwan continues to reverberate through cyberspace, the real world, and the semiconductor industry Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense confirmed it was hit by a DDoS attack on Wednesday in what has been an eventful week for the island nation, US-Sino relations, and semiconductors.…  ( 5 min )
    Fortinet's latest hyperscale kit packs 2.4Tbit/sec of firewall into a 4U chassis
    And it only took 16 ASICs As port speeds creep ever higher to support larger hyperscale workloads and bandwidth-hungry 5G applications, Fortinet says its latest generation of firewalls should keep even the largest data flows safe from would-be attackers.…  ( 5 min )
    Obscure Asian fintech AMTD Digital becomes the new GameStop
    Social media suspected as shares surge 20,000 percent and company admits there's no good explanation An obscure Asian financial services startup's share price has exploded, seemingly after social media users decided to pile into the stock.…  ( 4 min )
    The many derivatives of the CP/M operating system
    After a long and surprisingly varied dynasty, it's possible they're all FOSS now Its new licence says that "CP/M and its derivatives" are free for anyone to modify and redistribute. But which derivatives?…  ( 8 min )
    Strike days should serve as 'wake-up call' to BT's top brass, says union
    We kept network running 'safely and effectively' on those days, nothing to see here, says Brit telco The two days of strike action by BT call center operators and engineers at the Openreach subsidiary should act as a “wake-up call” to the executive management team at the British telco but no further dates are yet scheduled.…  ( 5 min )
    Pull jet fuel from thin air? We can do that, say scientists
    Thanks, we'll take any good news, large or small, right now Vid  The aviation industry's attempts to go green are getting a boost from an unlikely place: carbon-neutral jet fuel pulled from thin air.…  ( 4 min )
    India scraps data protection law in favor of better law coming … sometime
    Tech giants and digital rights groups didn't like it, but at least it was a law The government of India has scrapped the Personal Data Protection Bill it's worked on for three years, and announced it will – eventually – unveil a superior bill.…  ( 5 min )
    Student crashes Cloudflare beta party, redirects email, bags a bug bounty
    Simple to exploit, enough to pocket $3,000 A Danish ethical hacker was able to work his way uninvited into a closed Cloudflare beta and found a vulnerability that could have been exploited by a cybercriminal to hijack and steal someone else's email.…  ( 6 min )
    UK Parliament bins its TikTok account over China surveillance fears
    Plan to educate the children turned out to be a 'won't someone think of the children?' moment The UK's Parliament has ended its presence on TikTok after MPs pointed out the made-in-China social media service probably sends data about its users back to Beijing.…  ( 4 min )
    Financial exchange's efforts to replace core systems with blockchain founder – again
    Accenture roped in to find the weakest link One of the world's most prominent and mission–critical uses of the blockchain - The Australian Securities Exchange's (ASX) project to replace its CHESS core trading systems with a distributed ledger – has struck further trouble.…  ( 4 min )
    Solana, Phantom blame Slope after millions in crypto-coins stolen from 8,000 wallets
    SOL holders literally S.O.L. Millions of dollars worth of Solana cryptocurrency and other tokens were stolen from seemingly thousands of netizens this week by thieves exploiting some kind of security weakness or blunder.…  ( 5 min )
    GitLab plans to delete dormant projects in free accounts
    Hopes to save a quarter of hosting costs by binning repos that haven't been touched for a year Exclusive  GitLab plans to automatically delete projects if they've been inactive for a year and are owned by users of its free tier.…  ( 5 min )
    Education officials urged to curb student snoopware
    Or just see it as preparing them for the future What with American students increasingly subject to surveillance software, 15 advocacy groups want the US Department of Education to set monitoring policies that are consistent with civil rights laws.…  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Twitter subpoenas emails, texts from Tesla bigwigs and Musk’s BFFs
    Because Musk purchased Twitter as an individual, his friends are "fair game."  ( 5 min )
    Winamp, the best MP3 player of the 1990s, just got a major update
    5.9 RC1 Build 1999 focuses on modernizing Winamp's foundation for more features.  ( 5 min )
    Xbox’s latest dev tools add surprise boost for memory-strapped $299 Series S
    Exact boost amount still unclear—but early analysis suggests it's great news.  ( 6 min )
    “Black widow” neutron star devoured its mate to become heaviest found yet
    This work may set an upper limit on just how large neutron stars can become.  ( 7 min )
    Almost two years after Apple’s M1 launch, Microsoft Teams goes native
    Microsoft says it will roll out incrementally "in the coming months."  ( 5 min )
    Biden administration declares monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency
    The US has the largest monkeypox case tally of any country in the world.  ( 6 min )
    Key Russian official confirms his country’s commitment to the space station
    "It was very heartening to hear the support across the board of the partnership."  ( 6 min )
    Record labels’ war on ISPs and piracy nets multiple settlements with Charter
    Confidential settlements could lead to more terminations of Internet subscribers.  ( 6 min )
    Accused of profiting on child sexual abuse, Visa halts Pornhub ad payments
    Visa can now only be used on MindGeek sites featuring "legal adult entertainment."  ( 5 min )
    Google’s video chat merger begins: Now there are two “Google Meet” apps
    Duo is being rebranded to Google Meet, and old Google Meet is still sticking around?  ( 6 min )
    Wi-Fi 7 PCs should be available by 2025, could surpass 5.8Gbps, Intel says
    Intel sees enough time before Wi-Fi 7's release date to improve processing speeds.  ( 5 min )
    Wemo’s confused Smart Dimmer shows how hard standardizing IoT may be
    It's too early to assume Thread products mean easy compatibility—or Matter support.  ( 5 min )
    Volkswagen’s new US-made ID.4 starts at $37,495 with small battery
    Chattanooga is now assembling the EV crossovers with 62 kWh or 82 kWh packs.  ( 5 min )
    After making V8s more efficient, Tula turns its hand to EVs
    The company wants to treat EV motors like a beating heart.  ( 5 min )
    The women calling out Apple’s handling of misconduct claims
    Some employees say Apple’s HR team puts company reputation ahead of worker welfare.  ( 5 min )
    North Korea-backed hackers have a clever way to read your Gmail
    SHARPEXT has slurped up thousands of emails in the past year and keeps getting better.  ( 7 min )
    With help from BA.5, new COVID hospitalizations quadrupled since April
    More people are getting seriously ill as BA.5 floods country and protection wanes.  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Crypt of the Necrodancer gets online multiplayer, Versus mode, and more in huge new Synchrony DLC
    Crypt of the Necrodancer, the acclaimed rhythm-based dungeon-crawler from Brace Yourself Games, has - following its first update in five years last month - launched a huge new expansion, titled Synchrony, into Steam early access, bringing new characters, online multiplayer, and more. And if that wasn't enough, there's also some sort of sequel or spin-off on the way. Getting the latter part of the announcement out of the way first, as details are currently rather limited, the follow-up is called Rift of the Necrodancer and is described as "new standalone rhythm game in the Necrodancer universe." Exactly what form it'll take is currently unclear, but Brace Yourself says to "stay tuned" for more details. Thankfully, if it's details you want, Crypt of the Necrodancer's newly released Synchrony DLC delivers in spades, arriving alongside an absolutely enormous set of release notes. To summarise though, it brings three new characters, new enemies, new items, online multiplayer, a new Versus mode, full mod support, plus a stack of DLC-exclusive features. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Dead Cells' Panchaku update lets you pet your pets and wield a dual frying pan
    Dead Cells, the ever-expanding rogue-like action-platformer from developers Motion Twin and subsidiary Evil Empire, continues to swell, this time with the newly released Enter the Panchaku update, which introduces pet petting, a formidable dual frying pan weapon, and more. The ability to pet your pets in a rogue-like action-platformer mightn't be at the top of your own personal list of exciting additions, but - as revealed in Evil Empire's extremely extensive release notes - the feature is now in, giving players the ability to show their companions some love between biomes. And why wouldn't you want to do that, you monster? Elsewhere, the free Panchaku update introduces the new Panchaku weapon, which keen-eyed players might recognise as originating in the animated trailer for Dead Cells' Bad Seed expansion. It's described as "two frying pans tied together with a piece of string, which crits on enemies facing you and has a slick combo with hits behind and all around you". It'll also reflect bombs and projectiles mid-combo. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Would you eat a Pokémon?
    This week on the Eurogamer Newscast we're talking Pokémon, following the franchise's huge announcement livestream that divulged fresh details on upcoming games Scarlet and Violet. The star of that show? Well, obviously it was Fidough - a freshly-baked dog Pokémon made of bread, whose popularity has now set the internet ablaze. But, dear viewer, we have questions. If Fidough is bread... can you eat it? Should you eat it? Why wouldn't you eat it? And how does it evolve? Tom Phillips, Ed Nightingale, Victoria Kennedy and Liv Ngan discuss all of this and show off our own two-minute art challenge concepts for whatever Fidough evolves into, while pondering how it might taste. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Apex Legends breaks down new hero Vantage's abilities in latest trailer
    With Apex Legends' 14th season coming in fast and its pre-launch promotional push in full swing,developer Respawn Entertainment has shared further details on new hero Vantage - this time focusing on her abilities - ahead of her arrival next Tuesday, 9th August. Vantage was officially unveiled as Apex Legends' 22nd hero at the end of July, in a new Stories from the Outlands video introducing her as a young hunter on the snowy planet of Págos. Adding a sport of drama to her backstory, her mother is an escaped prisoner (wrongly convicted) who was forced to turn herself in after Vantage was badly injured in an accident. With that lore dump out the way, Respawn has now turned its attention to detailing what Vantage will bring to Apex Legends in gameplay terms, revealing her abilities to be based around two core elements: her sniper rifle and her bat-like companion Echo. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Mario Kart 8 Deluxe update finally makes Coconut Mall cars move
    The second wave of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC is now available to download - and alongside it, there's a surprise update for one of the first wave's tracks. That's right, Wii classic Coconut Mall has been fixed, so the Shy Guy-driven cars at the end of the course are no longer static. Bizarrely, however, rather than just move back and forth as they did in the Wii original, the vehicles now pull off doughnuts. I'm not sure this was an improvement. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Here's a new German techno album running on a Game Boy Advance
    German musician Remute is known for releasing albums on retro hardware - and now his latest is available on a Game Boy Advance cartridge. The album, titled Unity, features 15 songs about "unification, division, and trust". The cartridge is compatible with all GBA, SP, Nintendo DS Lite, or Analogue Pocket consoles, without the need for a region lock. Read more  ( 14 min )
    Back 4 Blood's second major expansion out later this month
    Turtle Rock Studios has revealed new details for Back 4 Blood's second major DLC expansion. The expansion, called Children of the Worm, will feature a brand-new story campaign with a new enemy type. There's also new playable Cleaner known as "Prophet Dan," a gun toting, self-proclaimed preacher of the end times. Read more  ( 15 min )
    GoldenEye 007 mod brings James Bond classic The Spy Who Loved Me to 2022
    A Goldeneye 007 mod has taken Roger Moore's third outing as James Bond and turned it into a Nintendo 64 game. The Spy Who Loved Me fan project from N64 Vault is a "full campaign mod for GoldenEye". It adds Moore's likeness, along with Bararba Bach's Anya "XXX" Amasova and Curt Jürgens' Karl Stromberg, into the blocky and pixelated world of game's gone by. Levels for The Spy Who Loved Me 64 include The Alps, where Bond famously skied off the side of a cliff only to deploy a Union Jack parachute, much to the chagrin of his perusers. Read more  ( 15 min )
    New details for fantasy farming sim Harvestella revealed
    Square Enix has revealed some new details about its fantasy farming sim Harvestella, unveiled at Nintendo's Direct Mini in June. The Final Fantasy meets Stardew Valley meets Rune Factory game takes place across multiple seasons, with towns to match. Square Enix has now revealed the gorgeous pink and purple cherry blossoms of spring town Nemea. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Battlefield 2042's next map will arrive with Season 2 in September
    Battlefield 2042's latest map is set to arrive with the release of Season 2 in September. In a developer interview hosted by DICE, lead level designer Shashank Uchil said the team had taken on player feedback by focusing on adding cover and small spaces: "We want to make smaller levels; we want to have levels with more cover. All of that is in this level." Read more  ( 15 min )
    Beyond Good & Evil 2 is still alive
    Beyond Good & Evil 2 is still alive, despite more than a decade of on-again, off-again development and the departure of its creator two years ago. Narrative designer Sarah Arellano, formerly of Blizzard, today announced via Twitter that she had joined the project as its lead writer. Arellano previously worked on World of Warcraft, following a stint at Saints Row studio Volition. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Pokémon fans react to Fidough, the rising star of Scarlet and Violet
    The internet went barking mad over all the new information revealed in yesterday's Pokémon livestream, but in particular the new breed Fidough, who yesterday became one of main topics of discussion on the internet. I've been asked (read, allowed) to bring you the best freshly-baked Fidough content that we've been enjoying. Consider this as a bit like a Paul Sudowoodo handshake. Right. Let's get this bread. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Hard West 2 review - absolutely stellar fun
    Someone once wrote - I can't find the piece, of course - that the reason Peanuts is better, and also weirder and sadder, than other gag comic strips is that it has four panels rather than three. Most comic strips find that three is enough, and why wouldn't it be enough? Setup, development, punchline. The fourth panel in Peanuts is where things get weird and sad. A moment after the joke. A human moment, awkward and brilliant and often deeply memorable. Anyway, I thought of this yesterday when pondering why most XCOM-alike tactics games have two action points, while Hard West 2 has three. Let's take it back to the start: Jake Solomon's XCOM reboot Enemy Unknown hit on something very special when it reduced the complexity of a turn-based tactics game down to a simple idea: each unit can do two things per turn. You can move and shoot, or you can move twice, etc etc. It's not really a reduction in complexity, actually, but a clever repositioning of complexity. By making the rules of the game clear and non-fiddly, it allowed players to understand that the really engaging decisions lay out there on the actual battlefield. It wasn't how to move and shoot, it was what you might do through moving and shooting. Read more  ( 20 min )
    Koch Media ditching name it admits is tricky to get your mouth round
    Koch Media, which owns video game publishers such as Deep Silver and developers such as War Horse, has rebranded itself as Plaion (pronounced 'Play On'). In a press release, the company, itself part of the vast Embracer empire, stated this name was chosen to "better portray who we are and the journey we are taking". "Over the last 28 years, we have built an incredibly strong business, partnering with many of the best-known names in the industry," wrote Plaion CEO Klemens Kundratitz. Read more  ( 15 min )
    LG TV owners: get yourself a three-month subscription of Stadia Pro for free
    Have you bought a brand-new LG television recently? Perhaps you picked one up during last month's Prime Day sales. Or maybe you are overdue an upgrade to make full use of your shiny new PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S. Either way, Google, ever desperate to prove Stadia is still alive and kicking, is offering new LG TV owners a free three-month subscription to Stadia Pro. The Stadia app launched last year on LG TVs and supports any model from 2020 onwards. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Two Point Campus review - university was never this fun
    Long ago, I was a muso. At school I was the kid who never had a lunchtime or afterschool spare between choirs, orchestras, and jazz bands. At university I spent as much time with the musical theatre society as I did studying for my actual music degree. And with Two Point Campus, this gives me one ultimate objective: to create the ultimate fantasy music school. Before that though, the basics. To those who've played spiritual predecessor Two Point Hospital, Two Point Campus will be very familiar. The two games are near-identical in their approach: take something typically mundane and make a game of it, adding a healthy dose of oddball British humour. The controls are reassuringly familiar, the art style bright, detailed and easily readable, and university life is accompanied by an appropriately 80s soundtrack for all the gossipy, John Hughes drama. The game's campaign is essentially an extended tutorial, each new level providing fresh challenges to explain core mechanics and systems, and serving as preparation for the endless customisable sandbox mode. Each campus begins as a blank slate of buildings ready to be filled with lecture halls, classrooms, dormitories, bathrooms, private tuition rooms, libraries, and more. Staff need to be hired to teach, clean up, and keep students happy. Students have their own needs which pop up in the form of mission requests: I need a party! I need a bookcase to study! I need a love bench! (More on that later). Read more  ( 19 min )
    Bungie employees doxxed, sent death threats and racial abuse
    Bungie employees were doxxed and received death threats following a Destiny 2 collaboration with a streamer. A tweet from a Bungie employee in June listed a collaboration with African-American streamer Uhmaayyze, who the employee described as a hero. The tweet received death threats in response, which was followed by several Bungie employees receiving calls, texts, and voicemails from anonymous callers on their personal phones filled with racial slurs, reports The Record. Read more  ( 15 min )
    The Ascent gets brand-new story DLC later this month
    Cyberpunk RPG The Ascent's next DLC, Cyber Heist, is set to be released on 18th August. The story DLC pack is set after the events of the main game's story, where players will be treated to a whole host of new main missions and side quests. The nature of the DLC means that players will need to complete the base game before it's accessible to them. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Tencent seeks to become single-largest Ubisoft shareholder - report
    Tencent is trying to become Ubisoft's single-largest shareholder - overtaking that of the company's founding Guillemot family. That's according to a new Reuters report, which cites a number of sources close to the company with knowledge of ongoing discussions. Tencent already owns around five percent of Ubisoft (alongside chunks of dozens of other video game companies). Now, it's seeking more. Read more  ( 15 min )
    MultiVersus season one delayed until further notice
    The MultiVersus team has announced a delay to the platform fighter's first season. In addition to this, the company has also delayed the arrival of Morty to the game. "We know this might be disappointing for some and want to assure our Community that we are dedicated to delivering new and exciting content that delights players," the developer tweeted. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Twitch streamer beats "impossible" $20k Halo 2 challenge
    A Twitch streamer has achieved the impossible by completing the $20,000 (£16,400) Halo 2 challenge. The challenge, set earlier this year by streamer Charlie "Cr1tikal" White, was that someone had to complete the entirety of the Halo 2 Anniversary campaign without dying on Legendary difficulty, with all "Skull" modifiers on. The effect of the modifiers range from increasing the health of enemies to all enemies being permanently cloaked. The only modifier that must be kept off is "Envy" skull, which replaces Master Chief's torch with an active camouflage system (because that would make things too easy). Read more  ( 15 min )
    Among Us VR beta sign-up is live
    You can now sign-up to the upcoming Among Us VR beta. A link to the process was provided alongside the announcement. The VR version was first announced in December at The Game Awards, with speculations rising of a release date during this winter. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Rumours suggest new Iron Man game coming from EA
    Rumours suggest EA is currently working on a new Iron Man video game. Earlier this year, Jeff Grubb reported that a Black Panther game was in the works with EA. Now, the loose-lipped journalist has shared that another Marvel project is also underway with the company. Chatting as part of Giant Bomb's Game Mess Mornings stream, Grubb stated: "[EA is] making that Black Panther game we spoke about... and [it's] making another Marvel game that's single player". This comment was said in a rather throw away manner, but, of course, it was quickly picked up by the internet. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Don't expect a new Nintendo Switch model this financial year - report
    Nintendo won't launch another new Switch model during the current financial year, ending in March 2023. That's according to a new Nikkei (paywall) report, which follows up on Nintendo's latest financial results issued earlier this week. During those results, Nintendo said it faced manufacturing issues due to component shortages. Speaking to Nikkei, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said that sorting these was now Nintendo's immediate goal. Read more  ( 14 min )
    Spider-Man Remastered will be playable on Steam Deck
    Spider-Man Remastered, the PC release of Sony's PS5 game, will be playable on the Steam Deck. Insomniac confirmed the news in a tweet, noting the game is Steam Deck verified. It means you can swing through New York City on the go... in actual New York City if you want. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Microsoft's new Windows 11 widget connects to your Game Pass library
    Microsoft has revealed a new widget for Windows, showcasing the latest games available on PC Game Pass. It's the first widget to be released for Windows 11 since the operating system was released in October 2021. The widget is currently under preview and only available to Windows Insiders running the latest Windows 11 Preview Build. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Red Dead Online - an untamed playground to make your own fun
    Have you ever met a cheater in Red Dead Online? I have - a few times, in fact. The latest encounter came at the worst possible moment, after I had spent an hour painstakingly hunting animals to fill up my wagon with pelts. I had set off on a trader mission across the map, opting for a risky long-haul voyage that left me open to attack. A potential shootout with a player was a risk I could accept: combating an invisible god-like assailant, however, was something I really hadn't signed up for. Out of nowhere, I was transformed into a flying saucer. It didn't take long for me to realise what was happening - Red Dead Online is notorious for its cheaters, and one of them had decided to spend their evening targeting me. It turns out that driving a wagon as a spaceship is quite difficult. The ship was so vast that it obscured my view, and the glow from its lights made navigating the pitch-black desert almost impossible. Using my mini-map to steer, I somehow made my way to my destination, but my ordeal wasn't over quite yet. I had some bandits to deal with. Read more  ( 21 min )
    Rare talks captaincy, personalisation, and waterfalls ahead of Sea of Thieves' big new update
    For those who've been with Sea of Thieves since its release back in 2018, the captaincy update is a thing of legend; originally intended to be the multiplayer pirate adventure's very first post-launch update, it would give players the opportunity to acquire their own persistent vessel on the seas, and - in a proposition that still excites the pirate in me to this day - start their sessions in a gloriously dramatic fashion, bursting through the Legendary Hideout's massive waterfall out into the world. But then Sea of Thieves' slightly wobbly launch happened, and Rare shifted its focus to fleshing out the game's sandbox following criticism of its limited core. With that, the captaincy update was set aside, but never quite forgotten by the player base, gradually becoming the stuff of legend with the passing of time. But then, earlier this year, it returned. As announced during Microsoft's June showcase, captaincy and boat ownership were, after all this time, back on the cards. Now, the wait is finally over, with Sea of Thieves' near-five-years-in-the-making captaincy update launching later today. It promises to deliver an elaborate new framework for adventures to come - minus any waterfall-busting ship shenanigans, unfortunately - and ahead of its arrival Eurogamer had the opportunity to chat with Rare about what it hopes captaincy will bring to the Sea of Thieves. "I think even before we released Sea of Thieves," explains creative director Mike Chapman on the update's genesis, "we all knew that the idea of being a ship captain in a game about delivering the ultimate pirate fantasy - the idea of a ship captain, and that ship captain's identity being personified through a ship - was just something that we always wanted to do." Read more  ( 21 min )
  • Open

    Intel Postpones Production of Meteor Lake's 3nm GPU Tile at TSMC, Trendforce Claims
    As Intel delays volume production of Meteor Lake's GPU Tile, TSMC might need to reconsider expansion plan.  ( 61 min )
    Nvidia GeForce GTX 1630 Review: Lobotomized Turing
    We tested Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1630, a blast from the past with half its "brain" removed. Turing TU117 was already slow, and Nvidia just made it even slower, but without the necessary accompanying price cut.  ( 61 min )
    Computer With 512 GPUs Tests Google's 'Quantum Supremacy' Claim
    A team of Chinese researchers put 512 GPUs and a "super algorithm" through their paces in an attempt to solve the same theoretical problem that Google crunched with its Sycamore quantum computer back in 2019. The result proves that there's still a long way ahead for quantum supremacy - but the road is being walked as we speak.  ( 59 min )
    How to Factory Reset a Windows 10 or 11 PC
    Whether you're having technical issues or errors, are preparing to sell your PC, or things just aren't running right, it may be time to reset Windows 10 or 11.  ( 59 min )
    Innosilicon's Fenghua II Low-Power GPU Launched: 4W – 15W TGP
    Innosilicon's Fantasy II is an entry-level low-power 1.5 TFLOPS GPU, set to compete against Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1630.  ( 59 min )
    Pick up an Alienware Aurora R13 With a Core I7-12700F and RTX 3060 Ti for $1,736: Real Deals
    Alienware's Aurora R13 is reduced to $1,736 at the moment. This particular version sports the latest Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake Core i7-12700F CPU, which is one of the best CPUs for gaming, and also has graphics powered by an Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti.  ( 65 min )
    Raptor Lake Die Size Confirmed to Be Larger Than Alder Lake
    A new video featuring a delidded 13th Gen Core i9-13900 engineering sample has confirmed the die size of Intel's new Raptor Lake architecture. With a size slightly lengthier versus Alder Lake.  ( 59 min )
    Intel Close to Sealing $5 Billion Chip Factories Deal in Italy
    Intel’s European facilities will cover a wide gamut of semiconductor essentials; from R&D and design in France, to chip fabs in Germany, and packaging and assembly in Italy.  ( 58 min )
    Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W Prints Terminal Commands on Receipt Printer
    Arseny has created a new way to log terminal commands on the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W by printing the interactions in real-time on a thermal receipt printer.  ( 58 min )
    Fedora Linux to Support Raspberry Pi 4 in Next Release
    Popular Linux distro Fedora will support the Raspberry Pi 4 family with version 37.  ( 58 min )
    Intel Arc Board Partner Ceasing Production, Report
    Igor Wallossek says at least one AIB partner has stopped Arc graphics card production due to quality concerns. The report also highlights partner complaints about the OEM business, inventories, and price guarantees.  ( 61 min )
    Best Motherboards 2022 for Gaming, by Socket and Chipset
    Here are the best Intel and AMD motherboards for all the recent processors. These boards offer great features and performance, according to our rigorous tests.  ( 76 min )
    Best 3D Printers 2022: FDM, Resin and Sub-$250 Models
    We help you find the best 3D printers for beginners, under $300 and more.  ( 83 min )
    Best RP2040 Boards 2022
    In such a short space of time, the RP2040 has disrupted the microcontroller community and we now have a smörgåsbord of RP2040 boards to choose from.  ( 65 min )
    Patent Hoarder Sues Acer, Asus, MSI and Lenovo for Video IP Infringement
    VideoLabs sues PC makers over video processing patents infringement.  ( 58 min )
    Kingston IronKey Vault Privacy 80 External SSD Review: Slow Security on the Go
    We put the Kingston IronKey Vault Privacy 80 external SSD through a full gamut of testing to see how it stacks up.  ( 67 min )
    Best Gaming Laptop Deals 2022
    Here are the gaming laptop deals we've seen.  ( 61 min )
    Best CPU Deals: Save on AMD and Intel
    We're rounding up the best deals on CPUs.  ( 62 min )
    Best SSD and Hard Drive Deals 2022
    These are the best SSD and HDD deals — guaranteed to expand the storage on your PC without emptying your wallet.  ( 64 min )
    Gigabyte UD750GM Power Supply Review
    The Gigabyte UD750GM won't give any trouble to the competition, but it has a reasonable price tag.  ( 68 min )
    Steam Deck Reservations Now Live for Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea
    Valve is opening reservations for the Steam Deck in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. It says it can do this without affecting estimates for North America, Europe and the UK.  ( 58 min )
  • Open

    Crypt Of The NecroDancer's developers just surprise announced a successor
    The developers of Crypt Of The NecroDancer just sneakily announced a followup. It's called Rift Of The NecroDancer, and it's a "standalone rhythm game in the NecroDancer universe." You can watch its surprise reveal below, at the end of the trailer for the newly released Synchrony DLC for Crypt Of The NecroDancer. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened remake now has a trailer and Kickstarter
    My first encounter with Frogwares' Sherlock Holmes games was the Consolevania drubbing of Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened, but the series has come a long way since. Alice loved last year's Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One, which stars a young, hot Holmes. As CJ reported last week, Frogwares now intend to close the circle by pitting hot Holmes against (hot?) Cthulhu creatures in a remake of 2007's The Awakened. Its Kickstarter project launched today and there's a reveal trailer below. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Koch Media have changed their name to Plaion
    If you're changing your company's name in part because it's hard to pronounce, you'd presumably want to change it to something with zero ambiguity. Seemingly not, if publisher Koch Media are any indication, as they announced today that they've changed their name to Plaion. At least the mispronunciations are now lower stakes. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Beyond Good & Evil 2 has a new lead writer (and still exists)
    We've been writing about Beyond Good & Evil 2 for over 14 years, but the ambitious open world sci-fi sequel hasn't been seen in over three. Ubisoft have maintained that the project isn't cancelled, and here's at least a little proof: narrative designer Sarah Arellano announced via Twitter that she's joined the project as lead writer. Read more  ( 16 min )
    The Sims 4's new patch fixes the incest
    The Sims 4 received patch 1.90.375.1020 today, which has a short set of patch notes. One of the included bug fixes is that "The 'Ask to be Girlfriend/Boyfriend' Want now targets appropriate Sims", which sounds innocuous enough. In reality, this is fixing a bug Rebecca reported on last week which was causing Sims to want to date their siblings. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Final Fantasy 14's island sanctuary inches closer with new screenshots
    Final Fantasy 14's patch 6.2 will arrive in late August, and will bring with it the new Island Sanctuary. These are private homes where players can farm, build, and invite pals around to hang. Square Enix have shared a few new screenshots today showing the tropical paradise you'll be constructing your homestead upon. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Pick up the 32-in Samsung Odyssey G7 gaming monitor for £499 after a £100 discount
    The Samsung Odyssey G7 is one of my favourite monitors, and I picked one up from Amazon the last time it was discounted. This week the 32-in model has been discounted to a similar price, so I thought I should let you all know about it! Read more  ( 16 min )
    Get the best PCIe 4.0 SSD for £99 - a £30 discount on the 1TB model
    We think the WD Black SN850 is the best PCIe 4.0 SSD, and it's now on sale. £99 at CCL gets you the premium 1TB model with a heatsink, some £30 cheaper than Amazon. This is the lowest price we've ever seen for this model, actually, even lower than it was during Prime Day, so it's well worth picking this up if you're after a high-speed drive for your PC or PS5. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Intel Arc Alchemist GPUs: everything we know so far
    Intel’s Arc Alchemist graphics cards – their first real go at dedicated desktop gaming GPUs in modern times – are in a bit of a weird spot. If all had gone according to the original plan, they’d already be out and playable, but repeated delays have hit, leaving only one card – the low-end Arc A380 – having a muted launch in China only. As of early August, the full range of GPUs haven’t even been announced in an official capacity. These were meant to finally provide the competition to Nvidia and AMD’s best graphics cards, so where’s the deets? Read more  ( 20 min )
    Turbo Golf Racing and Shenzhen I/O are now on Game Pass
    Two more games hit Game Pass today, one oldie-but-goodie and one newie. The oldie is Shenzhen I/O, an excellent Zachtronics puzzle game from 2016 where you design circuits and program hardware. The newie is Turbo Golf Racing, which looks like Rocket League for minigolf and is hitting Game Pass on the very day it launches. Shenzhen is absolutely worth a go if you enjoy Zachlike puzzlers, and Turbo Golf looks like one of those "could be fun, sure I'll give it a try" Game Pass games. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Vampire Survivors patches in a cheat menu, so here are some of the best
    Vampire Survivors updates to 0.10.0 today, dubbed the Not One patch, and there’s a secret new unlockable menu that can really trick the game out. Your survivor can kick it old school with a whole bunch of cheat codes to enter, styled as “spells”. Get a glimpse of the cheating potential in the teaser trailer below. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Tencent reportedly want a bigger piece of the Ubisoft pie
    Chinese gaming and social media giants Tencent have approached Ubisoft’s founders, the Guillemot family, in an effort to expand their stake in the AAA publisher, Reuters report. Tencent acquired a 5% stake in Ubisoft in 2018 and now multiple anonymous sources are now saying that Tencent intends to become the single largest shareholder in the publisher, a company valued at almost $6 billion (£4.9 billion). Read more  ( 17 min )
    Hard West 2 Review: rootin' tootin' tactical shootin'
    Ice Code Games may have called it Hard West 2, but 'round these parts we refer to it as "The Laughing Deer Show". New to town, are ya? Let me clue you in. Laughing Deer is a six-foot man of raw muscle and rage, a native American warrior with shoulders like a pair of yoked oxen and a personality best described as "barely contained". Unlike the rest of his posse, which includes a cowboy without a shadow, a woman with ties to the occult, and one very stubborn corpse, Laughing Deer doesn't really "do" guns. While his compatriots are all crouched behind crates, ricocheting bullets off buckets and wheelbarrows to hit enemies from behind, Laughing Deer is getting in their faces (shortly before his club gets significantly further into their faces). Now, bringing a club to a gunfight might not seem like the smartest idea. But while pistols require two of a gunslinger's action points to shoot, and rifles take all three, it only takes one action point to whack some neckerchief-wearing bandit with a big ol' stick. And Laughing Deer whacks a whole point of damage harder than normal, meaning he can rush foes and nail them into the ground with a couple of hard swings before they can pull the trigger. Better yet, killing an enemy completely refills a character's action points in Hard West, meaning that, when set up right, Laughing Deer can ping around the battlefield like a weaponised pinball. Read more  ( 21 min )
    New Apex Legends character Vantage comes with her own custom sniper rifle
    Apex Legends: Hunted is soon to release, and leading the charge is Vantage - the youngest Legend ever inducted (or abducted) into the Apex Games. Vantage hails from the icy world of Pagos, and her skills as a sharpshooter are borne out in her three powerful abilities - not least of which is her custom sniper rifle Ultimate, which she can bring out before the ability has even fully charged in order to snipe enemies and mark them for increased damage for her entire team. Take a closer look at her dangerous-sounding abilities in the new Apex Legends vignette trailer below. Read more  ( 17 min )
    The Electronic Wireless Show episode 196: the games we'd like to play for the first time again
    I'm back from my holidays to record The Electronic Wireless Show podcast once again, and I've brought a reader email and a new tattoo of Murray from Monkey Island with me. These are both relevant, because the email from James suggests that we talk about the games that we'd like to play for the first time again - just erase them from our heads and encounter them anew. Thus, we discuss Lucasarts games like the Monkey Island series. See, I tied it all together. In fact, I'm not sure if I'd wipe Monkey Island from my head or not, because I can't be sure how much of my love for it is fuelled by nostalgia. Matthew has other concerns, though, because as is our usual fashion we spend some time discussing the question "what games would you play for the first time again?" more literally than is intended. What grave consequences would come from erasing certain things from your brain? What sort of person would co-host Nate be if he wiped the Civ games from his memory? Listen in to find out. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Two Point Campus review: a relaxed management sim bursting with silliness and seminars
    Two Point Campus trades the operating rooms of its predecessor Two Point Hospital for lecture theatres and decrepit dorms. But its foundations remain the same: you're a manager with a budget and you've got to turn the fortunes of increasingly prestigious – and in some cases, bonkers – institutions around. Of course, this time you're not dealing with injured mummies and lazy surgeons, you're in charge of running university campuses (campi?) and ensuring they deliver a solid education. The job of a university president is a pretty relaxed affair, which means you're able to soak in the joys of watching your oddball students grow. But this leniency means it struggles to reward you for constructing a campus that's uniquely yours. Read more  ( 21 min )
    Lonely Mountains: Downhill goes murderously fast but appreciates stopping for a good view
    My cycling tour of video games is almost at its end but we're in no hurry. Let's pause for a wee break, like in Lonely Mountains: Downhill. The mountain biking game is full of gnarly descents, dangerous jumps, and barely controlled skids, but also has secret spots where you can sit down and enjoy a nice view for as long as you like. Lonely Mountains is a collection of little adventures, each leading to your tent at the end of the day. Delightful. Read more  ( 19 min )
    Dead Cells’ Enter The Panchaku update turns you into a pan-wielding ninja
    The Disney animated classic Tangled proved that humankind’s deadliest and most readily accessible weapon is the frying pan. Now, Dead Cells has taken that to the logical conclusion with its newly released Enter The Panchaku update: nunchuk pans. Channel your inner qi and behold the fury of panchaku in the trailer below. Read more  ( 16 min )
    "Crown jewel” of SRPGs Tactics Ogre: Reborn comes to PC on November 11th
    Strategy RPG revamp Tactics Ogre: Reborn is coming to PC exclusively for Steam on November 11th, confirming earlier leaks. This “crown jewel” of tactical role-playing, according to Square Enix, is being updated with enhanced graphics and sound, fully-voiced cutscenes and a redesigned battle system. Watch the announcement trailer below and pretend it’s 1995 again. Read more  ( 16 min )
    MultiVersus season one has been postponed indefinitely
    MultiVersus won’t be heading into season one on August 9th after all, devs Player First Games have revealed. Game director Tony Huynh clarified the delay has nothing to do with the ongoing merger shenanigans between the game’s publisher Warner Bros. and Discovery, Inc. To console yourself, have a watch of vid bud Liam chatting with the RPS team about their choicest MultiVersus character picks below. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Pick up a 650W Seasonic 80+ Gold power supply for £48 (was £68)
    Seasonic is the name when it comes to reliable PC power supplies, so it's rare to see big discounts - especially on their more affordable models. That trend is reversed at CCL in the UK today though, as their G12 GC-650 power supply has dropped from £68 to £48 as part of CCL's summer sale. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Linux 6.0 KVM Brings Intel IPI Virtualization, AMD x2AVIC
    There are a few notable changes worth mentioning when it comes to KVM virtualization with Linux 6.0...  ( 5 min )
    Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS Delayed Due To An OEM Install Issue Leading To Broken Snaps
    Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS had been due for release today but has now been pushed back by one week after discovering an installer issue that led to Snaps like the default Mozilla Firefox browser failing to launch once installed...  ( 5 min )
    An Early Look At AMD EPYC Performance Gains On Linux 6.0
    With Linux 6.0 having some big scheduler changes and tuning that should specifically benefit AMD Zen systems, I've been eager to see how some high core count EPYC servers will benefit from this next version of the Linux kernel. While just a few days into the Linux 6.0 merge window, here are some early benchmarks showing some of the areas where Linux 6.0 is allowing higher performance out of existing AMD EPYC 7003 series hardware...  ( 5 min )
    AMD Developing "PMF" Linux Driver For Better Desktop/Laptop User Experience
    AMD recently started posting Linux patches for a Platform Management Framework "PMF" driver that is designed to "enhance end user experience by making AMD PCs smarter, quieter, power efficient by adapting to user behavior and environment."..  ( 6 min )
    There Is Another Debate Over An AI Accelerator Subsystem For Linux
    With there recently being a number of new driver proposals for various AI-focused accelerators for the Linux kernel, currently they either go into "char/misc" as the random catch-all area of the kernel or within the Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) subsystem traditionally used for GPU drivers. There's been yet another discussion happening this week over introducing a formal "accelerator" subsystem in the kernel for the growing number of AI devices that may be seeking to provide open-source drivers...  ( 6 min )
    Intel SGX2 Support Coming With Linux 6.0
    Back in 2020 with Linux 5.11 Intel SGX support was finally merged after undergoing 40+ revisions over the span of years. Fortunately, not taking as long is now Intel SGX2 support that is set to be mainlined with the new Linux 6.0 kernel...  ( 5 min )
    Vulkan 1.3.224 Introduces Another New Extension To Help Valve's Steam Play
    Vulkan 1.3.224 was released earlier today and with this spec update comes VK_EXT_attachment_feedback_loop_layout as another extension started by Valve developers and will help their Steam Play (Proton) efforts...  ( 5 min )
    NVIDIA Releases CUDA 11.7 U1 With Support For RHEL 9.0
    It took longer than expected but NVIDIA's CUDA is out with an update providing official support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.0...  ( 4 min )
    MGLRU & Maple Tree Miss Out On Linux 6.0 But Will Aim For Linux 6.1
    A lot of great features are landing for Linux 6.0 but two more are now confirmed to partake in this next major kernel version: Multi-Gen LRU (MGLRU) and the Maple Leaf data structure...  ( 5 min )
    Valve Expanding Steam Deck Availability To Asian Markets
    In addition to continuing to ramp up their Steam Deck production to fulfill existing pre-order reservations this calendar year thanks to addressing supply chain bottlenecks, Valve announced today that in partnership with Komodo they are bringing this Linux-powered gaming console to Asian markets...  ( 5 min )
    Mesa 22.2-rc1 Released With AMD RDNA3 & Intel Alchemist Primed, Vulkan Additions
    After a few week delay to allow additional features to land, feature development on Mesa 22.2 has ended with Mesa 22.2-rc1 now being available ahead of its stable release in the coming weeks...  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Fanskapad Unreal Engine 5-trailer för hur Indiana Jones-spelet skulle kunna se ut
    Kvällsmys! Kvällsrys!  ( 6 min )
    Marvel's Spider-Man får Valves officiella Steam Deck-stämpel
    Ska alltså fungera lysande på bärbara spel-pc:n.  ( 6 min )
    Efter läcka på läcka är Tactics Ogre: Reborn bekräftat på riktigt
    Nyversion av taktiska rollspelet.  ( 6 min )
    Two Point Campus
    Utbilda nästa generations dårar, i spelet som är sjukt likt sin föregångare.  ( 10 min )
    Nintendo kommer inte bekräfta någon ny hårdvara i år, enligt analys
    I stället siktar man på att nå Switchens försäljningsmål.  ( 6 min )
    Elden Ring "en av de största lanseringarna någonsin" – på Youtube
    1,5 miljarder fler visningar än GTA V.  ( 6 min )
    Incest är väck i The Sims 4
    Liksom åldrande i expressfart. Hurra!  ( 6 min )
    Liket!? Lever!? Dead Island 2 påstås avslöjas i år, ska ha kommit "hyfsat" långt
    Game Awards-avslöjande...? "Mycket logiskt".  ( 6 min )
    Quiz – Vad kan du om skolor i spel?
    Tick, tack. Vad är det du hör? Jo visst, det är skolklockan som snart ringer in.  ( 6 min )
    Utöver Black Panther påstås EA ha ett singleplayer-spel på gång – med Iron Man?
    Rykten, rykten. Vem ska man tro på, tro på?  ( 6 min )
    Massa nytt om Pokémon Scarlet och Violet: världen, berättelsen, trailer
    Legendariska Pokémon är fordon.  ( 6 min )
    I Meet Your Maker bygger vi kluriga dungeons och försöker klara andras
    Från Dead by Daylight-skaparna.  ( 7 min )
    Call of Duty ska få "premiuminnehåll" – DLC istället för nytt spel nästa år?
    Kanske en Modern Warfare 2-expansion?  ( 6 min )
    Far Cry 6 kan spelas gratis i helgen
    En weekend på Yara.  ( 6 min )
    Utvecklingen av ett mobilt Warcraft-MMO sägs ha lagts ner
    Blizzard och Netease ska inte ha kunnat komma överens.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Turbofrekvens om 5,7 GHz när möjliga AMD Ryzen 7000-specifikationer skymtas
    Efter relativ tystnad från rykteskvarnen gällande de kommande Ryzen 7000-processorerna letar utförliga specifikationer sig ut på webben.  ( 7 min )
    Fractal Design krymper Define och Meshify
    Med fyra nya datorlådor skalar Fractal Design bort stöd för ATX-moderkort, medan de flesta möjligheter och funktioner från föregångarna finns kvar.  ( 8 min )
    Dell överväger bärbar dator som trådlös laddare
    I den berömda framtiden är det möjligt att telefonen kan snylta på den bärbara datorns batteri, om Dells och Apples patent realiseras.  ( 6 min )
    Quiz: Identifiera silhuetterna
    Den här veckan består utmaningen av tio mystiska silhuetter. Kan du lista ut vad som gömmer sig bakom de olika skuggfigurerna?  ( 5 min )
    Asrock avtäcker Intel Arc A380 i Mini ITX-format
    Den omskrivna Arc A380-modellen från Gunnir får nu sällskap av en tredjepartsmodell från en aktör som är mer välkänd på hemmaplan.  ( 6 min )
    PCI Express 5.0-lagring demonstreras med Ryzen 7000 i testsystemet
    Nästa generation lagringsenheter står precis utanför dörren. Phison demonstrerar prestandan med hjälp av nyheter på tre fronter.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Pokemon Go Fest: Sapporo will feature a Global Challenge and Ultra Unlock
    While Trainers in Japan are participating in Pokemon Go Fest: Sapporo this weekend, you can join in from home by completing a Global Challenge. Should the Global Challenges prove successful, you and other Trainers will receive upgraded bonuses during the upcoming Bug Out event happening August 10-16. Plus, additional bonuses will be unlocked for Galarian Zigzagoon Community Day on Saturday, August 13. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Assassin's Creed is getting its own whiskey
    To celebrate the 15th anniversary of Assassin's Creed, Antheum Studios is releasing a special edition of whiskey specifically for the franchise. You read that right. Whiskey. Not the usual energy drink with videogame branding. That said, you can mix the two readily and it doesn't taste too awful. Trust me. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Meet Your Maker is first-person building-and-raiding game from the creators of Dead by Daylight
    Dead by Daylight developers Behaviour Interactive have announced Meet Your Maker, a first-person building-and-raiding game. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, the game has you building stand-alone levels called Outposts. The goal is not only to protect your Outpost but to infiltrate those created by other players. Building focuses on a strategic, block-based design where you will draw from a customizable toolbox. Here you will find traps and guards for your maze-like Outpost. There are also Raiders ready for combat and posed to enter and attempt to take over other players’ creations. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Tencent looking to become the "the single largest shareholder" in Ubisoft - report
    Chinese conglomerate Tencent has plans to acquire more shares in Ubisoft, according to sources familiar with the matter. A reported by Reuters, the firm has expressed interest in increasing its stake in the game maker. Back in 2018, it acquired a 5% stake in Ubisoft, and as of press time, it's unclear how much more of a stake Tencent plans to purchase, but it wants to become the single largest shareholder. Currently valued at $5.3 billion, the Guillemot family, who founded Ubisoft, owns 15.9% of company shares and 22.3% of the net voting shares. It's said Tencent could offer up to $101.84 per share to gain additional stakes - a premium of 127% to the stock's $44.81 average price over the past three months. Read more  ( 15 min )
    MultiVersus season one has been delayed
    MultiVersus season one has been delayed to at least August 15, being pushed back for just over a week from the original seasonal start date. Originally, this was due to go live on August 8, but due to these unforeseen delays announced via social media, players will have to wait a little while longer to progress through a new battle pass. In addition, this means Morty is also being delayed to a yet-to-be-announced time in the future. The extended season time can be either good or bad depending on your progress through it, but the push back of the second DLC character is a rough blow to pretty much everyone. Game director Tony Huynh seems to be taking the development hard, tweeting from their personal account “I’m very unhappy that we disappointed players”. Now, delays do happen, especially in games that are receiving new content at a fast pace like MultiVersus, so it’s reasonable to expect bumps in the road every now and again. Read more  ( 15 min )
    The Ascent expands its cyberpunk chaos with melee combat and new missions in story DLC
    Today is a good day for fans of last year's GOTY contender The Ascent, the top-down shooter from Neon Giant. The game has made huge strides since its release last summer. Most notably, The Ascent arrived on PlayStation, and received various bits of smaller add-ons. But no meaningful new content made it into the game since then, and this is about to change. Neon Giant today revealed Cyber Heist, a major new DLC for The Ascent. The add-on arrives August 18, priced $10/€10/£8. Cyber Heist adds new main and side mission chains, set in a new Malhorst-Gelb-owned arcology. The story takes place after the events of the main campaign, with Kira offering you a new job. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Albert Wesker and Ada Wong are coming to Dead by Daylight in new Resident Evil chapter
    Last night, Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive hosted and wrapped up its very first showcase, Behaviour Beyond. It was revealed that the developer has plenty of plans up its sleeve, including two new games in the works, but of course, Albert Wesker stole the show. Dead by Daylight was in receipt of its first Resident Evil chapter in summer of last year. The introduction of fan favourites, Nemesis, Leon Kennedy, and Jill Valentine, saw the game reach its highest player count yet on Steam. Obviously having realised exactly what fans are eager for, Behaviour Interactive announced a second Resident Evil chapter during its sixth-anniversary stream in May, 2022. Read more  ( 16 min )
    The Sims 4 patch gets rid of aging bug and incest after accidentally adding them
    If you have spent any amount of time with The Sims 4, or even appreciating one of the communities many content creators, you'll know that the simulation title can be chaotic. Half the charm of The Sims 4 is undoubtedly wedding the weirdest of couples and ultimately finding unique ways to kill them off, but the latest bugs to plague players have taken this to an unprecedented level of strange. Following last weeks' free update to The Sims 4, which now allows players to choose the sexual orientation of their sims, a couple of unusual bugs emerged as a result. The first of the bugs to emerge saw sims rapidly aging in a matter of minutes. For those who hate to look after toddlers, this wasn't a terrible thing, but seeing entire families turn into seniors was frustrating for many. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Leaked Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 lobby images confirm rumoured Tarkov-like DMZ mode
    It seems part of the plan at this point, but a few things from the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 have leaked thanks to a private event with NFL players. Activision invited the Los Angeles Rams to play an early version of the multiplayer shooter this week, resulting in a few of the players showing content that's yet to be officially announced, before they deleted their tweets, replacing them with generic shots of event banners. Nothing can ever be truly gone from the internet, however, so Call of Duty fans anxious for some new information about Modern Warfare 2 saved and analysed the images for all for all of us. The first one of these is a fairly benign shot of the game's lobby, which shows a similar layout to the more recent Call of Duty games. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Reproducible Builds: Reproducible Builds in July 2022
    Welcome to the July 2022 report from the Reproducible Builds project! In our reports we attempt to outline the most relevant things that have been going on in the past month. As a brief introduction, the reproducible builds effort is concerned with ensuring no flaws have been introduced during this compilation process by promising identical results are always generated from a given source, thus allowing multiple third-parties to come to a consensus on whether a build was compromised. As ever, if you are interested in contributing to the project, please visit our Contribute page on our website. Reproducible Builds summit 2022 Despite several delays, we are pleased to announce that registration is open for our in-person summit this year: November 1st → November 3rd The event will happen i…  ( 4 min )
    Abhijith PA: Trip to misty mountains in Munnar
    Munnar is a hill station in Idukki district of Kerala, India. Home to 2nd largest tea plantation in the country. Lot of people visit here on summer and in winter as well. I live in the neighboring district of Munnar though I never made a visit. In my mind I pictured Munnar as a Tourist trap with lots of garbage lying around. I recently made a visit and it changed my perception of this place. Little background I never liked tea much. I am also not a coffee person either. But if I have to choose over two that will be coffee because of the strong aroma. Going to relatives house, they always offered hot tea defacto. I always find difficult say ‘no’ to their friendly gesture. But I hate tea. A generation before me drinks lot of tea here at my place. You can see tea stalls in every corn…  ( 2 min )
  • Open

    Install Spotify on Manjaro and Other Arch Linux Based Distros
    Soptify provides official support for Ubuntu and Debian. So, how do you get the Spotify desktop application on Arch Linux?  ( 23 min )
  • Open

    Nara: Facing Fire inspired by Hollow Knight is live on Kickstarter with Linux support
    Ready for another beautiful and engaging looking metroidvania? Loved Hollow Knight? You should keep an eye on Nara: Facing Fire that's live on Kickstarter.  ( 4 min )
    Fantasy city-builder Songs of Syx adds diseases, makes you care for the elderly
    Songs of Syx is a fantasy city-builder that made a bit of a splash at release selling a few thousand copies pretty quickly, but as always many more games appear and some fall off the radar but Songs of Syx continues expanding.  ( 4 min )
    Last Call BBS, the final game from Zachtronics has left Early Access
    Last Call BBS, the final game from the clever people at Zachtronics has left Early Access and is out now along with Native Linux support.  ( 4 min )
    No more DLC for Oxygen Not Included, devs decide to do free updates instead
    Oxygen Not Included is not getting any more DLC, Klei Entertainment has announced. Instead, they're going to keep pumping out free updates for all players.  ( 4 min )
    Here's the current most-played games on Steam Deck
    A little while ago Valve showed the current top 10 most played games on Steam Deck and now we have an update on what people are currently playing.  ( 4 min )
    Valve teams with Komodo to bring the Steam Deck to Asia
    Some huge news for the future of the Steam Deck, as Valve has announced a teaming up with Komodo for the release of the Steam Deck in Asia.  ( 4 min )
  • Open

    Untitled
    No content preview  ( 2 min )

  • Open

    NBA 2K23 emphasises "authenticity" in detailed new gameplay breakdown
    With NBA 2K23's 9th September release date rapidly approaching, publisher 2K has shared a closer look at this latest series instalment's new features - including a new trailer - playing up the concept of "authenticity" across its defensive and offensive tool kit. It's an extensive list of new features, as detailed in a lengthy new blog post, with 2K saying this year's gameplay changes should "should translate to more wins, and more seamless actions". On the offensive side of things, there are new gesture combos to the Pro Stick, which 2K says has allowed it to "expand the dunking controls to let you dunk exactly how you want". That includes the addition of a new rim hang control which, on new gen consoles, incorporates physics-based simulated rim hangs. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Resident Evil Dead by Daylight chapter detailed at Behaviour Beyond showcase
    Behaviour Interactive's output has been dominated by horror game Dead by Daylight, but the developer is going... beyond that with its Behaviour Beyond showcase. This was the company's first ever showcase, streamed live on Twitch and YouTube. Here's everything that was shown. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Meet Your Maker is the next game from Dead by Daylight dev Behaviour Interactive
    Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive has revealed its next game: Meet Your Maker. It's a first-person building and raiding game that takes place in a hellish, post-apocalyptic wasteland, with players building towering industrial outposts filled with traps to protect genetic material - and then infiltrating the outposts of others to steal the precious resource. It certainly feels like a departure from the popular horror multiplayer game, both in its genre and its aesthetic. But there are more similarities than you might think. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Jetpack Joyride 2 resurfaces as Apple Arcade exclusive, launching this month
    Jetpack Joyride 2 - the sequel to developer Halfbrick Studios' enormously enjoyable (and hugely successful) 2011 endless side-scrolling mobile shooter - has finally resurfaced and will launch as an Apple Arcade exclusive on 19th August. Halfbrick - also the studio responsible for mobile classic Fruit Ninja - initially announced an iOS and Android sequel to Jetpack Joyride back in February 2021, with an accompanying trailer suggesting some very familiar action, albeit with a slightly slicker new HD art style. That announcement was accompanied by a limited launch in select territories, but Halfbrick suddenly pulled the game from Google Play and the iOS App Store in March this year, saying it had "entered a new closed phase of development for an indefinite period". Read more  ( 15 min )
    Pokémon Center London's Beefeater Pikachu and Roserade will make you feel like royalty
    Today's Pokémon livestream, gave us a look at the exclusive plushies that'll be sold at London's upcoming Pokémon Center. The Pokémon Company had already announced the Pokémon Centre pop-up store will be returning to London, but hadn't given away any details on what new Pikachu design will be appearing. Images of the plushies have now been released, via today's Pokémon livestream. The previous pop-up store in 2018 had Pikachu suited up and topped off with a bowler hat, and was so popular the store ended up having to limit purchases and opening hours in order to cope with demand. This time, Pikachu has an even more iconic London look. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Hindsight review - a glorious, elbowy, frustrating examination of memory
    It is impossible to get your head around memory. It's intangible, yet all-powerful. It can be like living with a ghost, but the ghost is Arnold Schwarzenegger. If I was making a game about my own memories, my own experience of interacting with memory, I am confident that it would be the worst game ever made. An open-world affair, but an endlessly glitchy one. Landmarks disappear and shift. The same journey can take hours one day and seconds the next, and when you reach the destination it's entirely different anyway. And wherever you go, you're always at the centre of the map. I do not want to play this game. But what about a game exploring someone else's memories? What form would that take? What problems might it run into? Hindsight is an attempt to answer the first question, I think, and it also provides plenty of answers to the second. Read more  ( 20 min )
    Mobile games see revenue declines across most genres
    New data reveals that most mobile gaming genres have seen a decline in revenue during the first half of this year. The data from reliable app store analysis firm SensorTower stated the mobile gaming market fell by 9.6 percent year-over-year to $11.4bn in the US. The only two categories that did not see a decline in the mobile gaming market were tabletop and arcade games. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Activision Blizzard reportedly cancels unannounced World of Warcraft MMO for mobile
    Activision Blizzard and Chinese publisher NetEase have reportedly cancelled an unannounced World of Warcraft MMO following a disagreement between the two parties. As reported by Bloomberg, the unannounced project - internally known as Neptune and in development for three years - wasn't a direct adaptation of the existing WoW MMO, but rather an MMORPG spin-off set in the same universe but during a different time period. However, despite the project's already lengthy development period, NetEase is now said to have disbanded its creative team - consisting of more than 100 developers - after a disagreement with Activision Blizzard "over financial terms" resulted in both parties pulling the plug. Read more  ( 15 min )
    More Stray mods for you to paw over
    If I was a cat, I think I would've lost one of my nyan lives already with my pun game in my first mod round-up. But alas, the Stray modding community continues to give, and I am therefore compelled to continue cataloguing their work (see, that one wasn't even noticeable! That wasn't painful now, was it?). First up, there's another mod for the dog lovers among us, thanks to MrMarco1003, this time with Bolt from the titular Disney movie. The mod also changes Stray's meows into barks, and you'll get to see Bolt chilling out with his identically-shaped fur-iends at the beginning of the game. With the dog lovers placated, let's move onto the modifications for us cat lovers. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Sonic Triple Trouble gets fan-made 16-bit makeover
    A dedicated Sonic fan has taken the Sega Game Gear's Triple Trouble release and given it a 16-bit reimagining. "What if Sonic Triple Trouble had been originally released on the Sega Genesis / MegaDrive, after Sonic 3 and Knuckles," asked fan game developer Noah Copeland. Well, Copeland not only asked this question, but they also answered it. After releasing a demo for their creation several years ago, yesterday saw Copeland's passion project fully realised (thanks, The Deleter). Read more  ( 15 min )
    Bright Memory: Infinite - a technically impressive FPS action game tested on PS5 and Xbox Series consoles
    On May 7th 2020, Microsoft kicked off the new generation of consoles with a gameplay showcase featuring a wide range of games planned for the Xbox Series X - and Bright Memory: Infinite was the very first game shown off during this presentation. Now, more than two years later - and half a year after the arrival of the PC version - Bright Memory: Infinite has arrived on console. Given its prominent placement in that original showcase, I felt that we needed to check it out here on Digital Foundry. On the face of it, this is indeed a 'next-gen only' exclusive - you can't play the game on PS4 or Xbox One consoles - which makes the launch of a Nintendo Switch version all the more intriguing. Bright Memory: Infinite is a fast-paced first-person shooter which combines snappy gunplay with sword driven melee combat. It's not a long game but what's here is solid and reasonably well executed - it almost recalls the 2013 reboot of Shadow Warrior, though with more focused, linear level design. Plus, if you're playing on the latest consoles, Bright Memory Infinite promises support for 120Hz output and ray traced reflections, though not simultaneously. Where it surprises the most, perhaps, is in its development history. Bright Memory: Infinite is a showpiece title for what modern development tools can offer when in the right hands - you see, most of the development duties on the game were executed by one person. In creating the game, Infinite was built using Unreal Engine 4 with additional support software and Quixel assets to speed up development time. That's not to say this is entirely a solo project - artists, musicians and voice actors were all required to complete the game but considering the quality of the presentation, it's an impressive accomplishment. Read more  ( 20 min )
    New Bomberman game coming to Apple Arcade
    Apple Arcade users will soon be getting a new game in the Bomberman series to add to their collection. Amazing Bomberman will be available to download on the iOS Apple Arcade this Friday (5th August). The release of Amazing Bomberman will introduce "musical mayhem to the storied series" and see players "use various bomb types to smash obstacles and collect special items as the stage changes to match different songs". You can check out the new trailer for it all below. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Crystal Dynamics issues takedown notice following Tomb Raider leak
    Over the weekend, a leak with potential details of the next Tomb Raider game made its way around the internet. These details came from an audition script for a role in the game, and told of Lara Croft leading a team of younger tomb raiders as she deals with the isolation of success. Now, Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics has issued a DMCA takedown notice to the Sacred Symbols Patreon, which leaked the audition script in question - and in doing so pretty much verified the details as accurate. Sacred Symbols has since released a video about this takedown, saying the company had "[forced] our hand" on the matter. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Watch today's Pokémon Presents livestream here
    Settle down into your Snorlax bean bag and pop down the hood of your Pikachu onesie. Today's Pokémon Presents presentation - a Pokémon-focused Nintendo Direct - is due to broadcast today at 2pm UK time. We're expecting around 20 minutes of announcements and footage, including a deeper dive into this year's highly-anticipated Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, due for Nintendo Switch in time for Christmas. (Stand by for more Lechonk!) These shows typically pack in updates on other Pokémon spin-offs too, so expect a brief mention of things like Pokémon Unite, Pokémon Go or Pokémon Cafe Mix. And finally, after years of waiting will we finally hear more about Pokémon Sleep? Read more  ( 14 min )
    Xenoblade Chronicles 3 special edition delay means it misses out on series' most lucrative physical launch
    Nintendo Switch exclusive Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has earned the biggest UK launch yet for the series, in terms of boxed sales figures. But the critically-acclaimed RPG missed out on becoming the franchise's most lucrative launch to date - largely because it launched without its more-expensive Definitive Edition, GamesIndustry.biz reported. As you may recall, the extra contents of Xenoblade Chronicles 3's Definitive Edition are now slated for launch later this year, due to "unforeseen logistical challenges". Read more  ( 15 min )
    Elden Ring modder cuts Erdtree to improve frame rate
    Elden Ring has been heavily criticised for its performance issues, particularly its PC iteration. That's why one modder has taken matters into their own hands and taken drastic measures: chopping down the Erdtree. For the unfamiliar, the Ertree is the giant golden tree that not only dominates the world with its shimmering branches, but dominates the narrative and the lives of the inhabitants in The Lands Between. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 images leak following NFL event, DMZ all but confirmed
    NFL team the LA Rams may be feeling a little sheepish this morning. Following an event that allowed the team early access to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, several images and snippets from the game have made their way onto the internet. You could say, these leaks are ram-pant. The first image shows off the game's upcoming multiplayer lobby, which you can see in the tweet below. This image was originally shared by NFL player Cameron Dicker, although they clearly realised the error of their ways and swiftly removed the shot from their socials. This is the internet, however, and of course once it was out there, the Call of Duty community got wind of it and saved it for posterity. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Latest SteamOS update includes temperature notifications
    Valve has released SteamOS 3.3 along with a stable, updated version of the Steam Deck client. The new version of SteamOS has plenty of new features as well as bug fixes. Following Valve's warning a couple of weeks ago about the Steam Deck's performance in high temperatures, temperature notifications have been added which warn you when the console goes outside of the safe operating range. Fashionably late to the heatwave, but handy for anyone who's enjoying the last of the summer time. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Final Fantasy 14 servers suffering DDoS attack in North America
    Final Fantasy 14 players are struggling to log in to servers due to a DDoS attack. A new post on The Lodestone states "technical difficulties due to a DDoS attack", meaning players in North American data centre Worlds may be disconnected, have difficulty logging in, or difficulty accessing, sending, and receiving data. "We are investigating the attack and taking countermeasures. Additional information will be provided as the situation develops," reads the post. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Nintendo blames component shortages as Switch sales slow
    Nintendo has blamed component shortages for a further slowing of Switch hardware sales, which have impacted the company's overall sales and profit for the past financial quarter. It's not all bad news, however. Switch game sales remain brisk, with more games sold to consumers year-on-year and a solid start for Nintendo Switch Sports (which has now notched up 4.84m copies). Nintendo highlighted several other first-party games to have sold well over the past three months: Mario Strikers Battle League shifted 1.91m copies, while Kirby and the Forgotten Land sold another 1.88m, taking it to a total of 4.53m and making it the best-selling Kirby game ever. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Single player games "really, really important", says EA boss, despite live service games dominating
    EA's CEO Andrew Wilson has stated the importance of single player games, despite multiplayer games dominating the company's output. During the company's first quarter earnings call yesterday, Wilson was asked how single player games fit into its portfolio. He described them as "really, really important", although chief financial officer Chris Suh also followed up noting that live service games account for over 70 percent of the total business. Read more  ( 16 min )
    South of the Circle has some of the best performances in games I've ever seen
    Doug Cockle said something to me once that always stayed with me. He said when he recorded his lines for The Witcher games - he played the English Geralt of Rivia - he did them alone. He never recorded with any of the other actors - he barely met them. And I found that so strange - I still do. But I get it. I understand that in order to give meaningful dialogue choice, you need to cut performances up so you can stick them back together again in the way the player wants. And the greater the interactivity, the more you need to do it. The problem with this is disjointedness: pauses in conversations where there would normally be none, mismatched tone where there wouldn't normally be any. Sometimes it's obvious, sometimes it's not. And however good the performer - and direction and sticking back together - the result is never quite what it's aiming to be: natural. Because it's not. South of the Circle got me thinking about this again. It's a smallish game that came out on Apple Arcade a couple of years ago and resurfaced on PC and Switch this week, and I'm very glad it did, because it has some of the best performances in a game I have ever witnessed. Read more  ( 17 min )
  • Open

    Comic for 2022.08.03 - Origin Story
    New Cyanide and Happiness Comic  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Intel Plans to Bring Wi-Fi 7 to Client Platforms by 2024
    Wi-Fi 7 may make Ethernet obsolete already in 2024 if everything goes well.  ( 62 min )
    Intel Serpent Canyon NUC Surfaces With Arc A770M, A730M GPUs
    Intel's Serpent Canyon NUC 12 systems pair 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs with Arc A-Series mobile GPUs.  ( 58 min )
    AMD's 64-Core Zen 3 Threadripper CPU Sets Cinebench R23 World Record at 5.2 GHz
    A Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5995WX 64-core chip has officially broken the Cinebench R23 world record holder with a multi-threaded score of over 11,600 points.  ( 58 min )
    GPU Benchmarks and Hierarchy 2022: Graphics Cards Ranked
    Our GPU benchmarks hierarchy ranks all the current and previous generation graphics cards based on real-world gaming tests. Find out how the latest GPUs stack up.  ( 93 min )
    YMTC Announces Xtacking 3.0 for Faster, Denser 3D TLC NAND
    Chinese manufacturer YMTC has announced the third generation of its Xtacking 3D TLC technology, increasing NAND speed and density while cutting power consumption by 25%.  ( 59 min )
    Best Graphics Cards for Gaming in 2022
    We've benchmarked all the latest GPUs to select the best graphics cards for gaming. These graphics cards offer the best performance at their price and resolution, from 1080p to 4K.  ( 92 min )
    Intel Arc AV1 Encoder Is Faster Than Nvidia NVENC H.264
    Intel AV1 encoding has finally been tested in its Arc GPUs, and is very fast compared to H.264 encoders.  ( 60 min )
    WD Black SN850X PCIe 4.0 PS5 SSD Hits Retail: 4TB for $820
    Western Digital's latest WD Black SN850X PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs are finally available.  ( 59 min )
    ASRock Intel Arc A380 Challenger ITX 6GB OC Debuts in China
    The OC isn't as impressive as the previously released Gunnir model, but ASRock's ITX design is smaller, and much lighter.  ( 59 min )
    Grab a Creality Ender 3 V2 for just $199: Real Deals
    Grab a Creality Ender 3 V2 for just $199 right now. This is one of our favorite 3D printers and a great way of diving into the 3D printing maker space without laying out a fortune.  ( 65 min )
    World's First Apple M1 Data Recovery, Firm Claims
    DriveSavers claims it may be the first in the world to achieve M1 data recovery.  ( 58 min )
    Kioxia Unveils 2nd Gen XL-Flash Storage Class Memory for Ultra-High-End SSDs
    Kioxia releases 256Gb XL-Flash storage class memory for advanced solid-state storage solutions.  ( 58 min )
    X670E Version of Asus Apex Motherboard PCB Diagram Leaked
    A new mysterious motherboard diagram that looks like an AMD AM5 variant of Asus' ROG overclocking motherboards has been shared online.  ( 59 min )
    Turn Your Aquarium Up to 11 With the MetalFish PC Case
    The case includes a USB-powered filter, oxygenator, fish health tuned lighting, and it can fit up to a Micro-ATX motherboard, 90mm tall CPU cooler, and 220mm graphics card.  ( 62 min )
    Samsung's Memory-Semantic CXL SSD Brings a 20X Performance Uplift
    Samsung's Memory-Semantic CXL SSD targets AI and ML applications with a large DRAM cache.  ( 58 min )
    Intel 13th-Gen Raptor Lake Specs, Rumored Release Date, Benchmarks, and More
    Here's the Intel 13th-Gen Raptor Lake release date, benchmarks, specifications, pricing, and all we know about the new chip architecture.  ( 82 min )
    MSI Pro B660M-A DDR4 Motherboard Review: Pro Board on a Budget
    The MSI Pro B660M-A DDR4 sports a jet-black appearance offering two M.2 sockets, four SATA ports, mid-range audio, and fast wired networking. At under $140, it’s a good deal for those looking to get into Alder Lake and not overclock. That said, there are less expensive options available with similar specifications.  ( 66 min )
    SK Hynix Reveals 238-Layer 3D NAND: Cheap and Fast SSDs Incoming
    SK Hynix's 238-layer 512Gbit 3D NAND devices enable inexpensive solid-state storage.  ( 58 min )
    U.S. Considering a Crackdown on China's 3D NAND Production
    U.S. government targets YMTC, Samsung, SK Hynix to protect American 3D NAND makers.  ( 58 min )
    Best PC and Laptop Deals
    We've gathered the top pre-built desktop and laptop deals you can find.  ( 61 min )
    Best Monitor Deals 2022: 4K, Gaming and More
    There are lots of awesome monitor deals dropping every day! Here are the best offers worth your hard-earned money.  ( 65 min )
    Best Tech and PC Hardware Deals 2022
    Whether you're looking for PC components, peripherals or prebuilt systems, these are the best deals on tech.  ( 70 min )
    Pimoroni Inventor 2040 W Review: The Spark of Invention
    Pimoroni’s Pico W Aboard-powered Inventor 2040 W enables projects both on your desk and on the web.  ( 65 min )
    AMD vs Intel: Which CPUs Are Better in 2022?
    We wade into the endless debate: Who makes the best CPU, AMD or Intel? Here's the blow-by-blow in ten categories.  ( 93 min )
    AMD Posts 70% Year-Over-Year Revenue Increase as Sales of EPYC CPUs Skyrocket
    AMD posts record revenue thanks to solid data center CPUs and gaming hardware sales.  ( 64 min )
  • Open

    With solar arrays now operational, Lucy’s got some shimmering to do
    We've still got to wait three years before the first asteroid flyby.  ( 6 min )
    Record-short days could speed up debate on leap seconds
    Leap seconds cause network turmoil. Meta wants to end them before the next one.  ( 5 min )
    50 state AGs vow action against carriers that bring foreign robocalls to US
    AGs send demands to carriers allegedly responsible for most foreign robocalls.  ( 5 min )
    Facing quality and pacing issues, Apple reportedly delays iPadOS 16
    Delay will give Apple more time to catch up with iOS 16 for September.  ( 5 min )
    WB Discovery merger strikes down “nearly finished” live-action Batgirl film
    Reports blame tax write-off strategy; HBO Max also quietly delists six films.  ( 6 min )
    SpaceX and Viasat fight over whether Starlink can meet FCC speed obligations
    Starlink still trying to get $886M in FCC funds awarded by Ajit Pai in 2020.  ( 5 min )
    Microsoft “playing dumb” on anti-abortion donations, activists say
    A new annual report could detail which candidates and causes Microsoft supports.  ( 6 min )
    Today’s best deals: Horizon Forbidden West, Apple gift cards, and more
    Dealmaster also has more PS5 games, the MacBook Air, and 8BitDo gamepads.  ( 10 min )
    4K webcam uses a built-in gimbal to follow you around, enable gesture controls
    Insta360's Link is one of the most advanced webcams available.  ( 6 min )
    DIY Tinycade aims to bring Alt Ctrl games to the masses
    The initial test games include CLAW, a spin on Space Invaders.  ( 6 min )
    Intel’s loss is AMD’s gain as EPYC server CPUs benefit from Intel’s delays
    Success in laptops, game consoles, and servers leads to record quarter for AMD.  ( 5 min )
    Russia wants a better look at what America’s newest spy satellite can do
    Spying in space does not violate any international norms.  ( 5 min )
    Mexican farmers and scientists share a mission: Saving a wetland
    Farmers, scientists work together to save a key ecosystem—and an endangered salamander.  ( 6 min )
    Samsung and iFixit launch repair program for flagship phones and tablets
    iFixit and Samsung both hope to expand the program in the future.  ( 5 min )
    How listening to uninterrupted noise helped millions to focus
    False copyright claim briefly took Lofi Girl and her continuous music stream down.  ( 5 min )
    Manchin rebuffs industry criticism of new EV tax credit
    Price caps, income caps, and no Chinese batteries are the stumbling blocks.  ( 5 min )
    The OnePlus 10T returns to a winning formula of high specs, low ($649!) price
    OnePlus cuts the price way down, but we miss the water resistance of the 10 Pro.  ( 6 min )
    Review: Beavis & Butt-Head reclaim their thrones of the reaction video genre
    Paramount+ revival adapts to how teen "TV" watching has shifted 30 years later.  ( 6 min )
    Tonight we’re gonna log on like it’s 1979
    A series of transcripts lets us explore the world of Telenet, Dialcom, and The Source.  ( 6 min )
    Monkeypox: 25K cases, a batch of new deaths, and 3 state emergencies
    WHO says it's seeing a broad range of illnesses as more people are infected.  ( 6 min )
    MIT scientists create color-shifting films inspired by 19th-century holography
    Potential applications include pressure-monitoring bandages, shade-shifting fabrics.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered is Steam Deck Verified ahead of release
    Good news web slingers, as Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered from Insomniac Games and Nixxes Software has been Steam Deck Verified ahead of the upcoming release.  ( 4 min )
    Get a bunch of The Walking Dead in the latest Humble Bundle
    Love The Walking Dead? Now you can pick up a whole bunch of the games thanks to the Walking Dead 10th Anniversary Bundle.  ( 4 min )
    Space Bandit is a top-down shooter with slick tunes and a Hotline Miami vibe
    Space Bandit is a new Native Linux top-down shooter where you're running through cramped corridors on some space ship. It's got a whole lot of style and some great tunes too.  ( 4 min )
    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge gets a nice big stability update
    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge is an absolutely fantastic beat 'em up throwback and now perhaps even better, with a big stability update out now!  ( 4 min )
    The 30th update for Dead Cells is out now as 'Enter the Panchaku'
    Enter the Panchaku is the latest big update to the rather great game Dead Cells, continuing to expand the game in a number of ways and tweak existing features.  ( 4 min )
    Steam Survival Fest is live now until August 8th
    Yet another event is happening now on Steam with the Survival Fest, giving you a showcase of various games that in some way force you to survive the elements.  ( 4 min )
    Raspberry Pi 4 gets a graphics bump with Vulkan 1.2 conformance
    Are you still enjoying your Raspberry Pi 4? Well, there's a graphics bump coming thanks to all the work in the drivers with it hitting Vulkan 1.2 conformance.  ( 4 min )
    SteamOS 3.3 and Steam Deck Client updates released for all users
    All the latest Beta and Preview changes from Valve have gone live with SteamOS 3.3 and all the Steam Deck Client updates are now available for all users.  ( 6 min )
    OBS Studio 28.0 Beta 1 brings Linux improvements, lots of new features
    OBS Studio is getting another major version bump with OBS Studio 28.0 Beta 1 now available for testing. Lots of big features included in this one, plus some nice Linux client updates.  ( 4 min )
  • Open

    Gigabyte M32QC – en böjd mellanklasskärm som inte hänger med i svängarna
    Formatet 32 tum har lämnat TV-bänken och flyttat över till skrivbordet. Idag tittar vi närmare på en välvd variant från Gigabyte.  ( 14 min )
    Rykte: AMD avtäcker Ryzen 7000 den 30 augusti – tillgänglig i september
    Lanseringsfönstret för AMD Ryzen 7000 "Raphael" krymper raskt från årstid, till månad till dag, åtminstone om Wccftechs branschkontakter har koll på läget.  ( 6 min )
    Veckans fråga: Tangentbordets formfaktor och layout
    Förra veckan behandlades virtuell layout och efter stor efterfrågan kompletterar vi dubbelt upp med både formfaktor och fysisk layout.  ( 6 min )
    AMD trotsar sval marknad – ökar omsättningen med 70 procent
    Efter flera rekordår fortsätter AMD uppåt och omsätter 6,55 miljarder USD till följd av Xilinx-förvärvet och stark försäljning av Epyc-processorer.  ( 7 min )
    Klassiska mediaspelaren Winamp uppdateras
    För första gången på fyra år rullar en ny Winamp-version ut till alla MP3-entusiaster, som kan förvänta sig utökad funktionalitet i framtida versioner.  ( 7 min )
    Lisa Su: "Ryzen 7000 lanseras senast i september"
    Lanseringsfönstret för AMD:s nästa processorserie blir mer konkret när bolagets VD tar ton, och slår fast att Ryzen 7000 följer tidsplanen.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    GlobalFoundries Partners With Google's Open-Source Silicon Effort To Provide 180nm Tech
    Over the past two years Google has been spearheading an effort to make silicon design more open-source and allowing more projects to get started in chip fabrication. That got started with a partnership with SkyWater Technology and Google covering the costs for open-source projects to see their initial chips fabricated on a 130nm process. Google's Open-Source Silicon Design Initiative recently announced SkyWater 90mm manufacturing will get underway for future manufacturing runs. Today the news out of Google's open-source group is that GlobalFoundries has joined this initiative and is providing 180nm manufacturing access...  ( 5 min )
    Linux 6.0 Adding Run-Time Verification For Running On Safety Critical Systems
    Another big ticket feature has made it for the Linux 6.0 kernel: the Runtime Verification infrastructure for running Linux on safety-critical systems...  ( 5 min )
    NVIDIA GA103 Support Posted For Open-Source Nouveau Linux Driver
    Merged last year into the Linux kernel's Nouveau DRM driver was initial support for GeForce RTX 30 "Ampere" GPUs initially in the form of the GA100 and GA102 parts. That support for the moment is still limited to just mode-setting/display support with 3D still being tackled, but now a patch has been posted that rather trivially extends the support to cover the GA103 GPU too...  ( 5 min )
    Linux 6.0 Networking Brings Performance Optimizations, Early Preparations For WiFi 7
    With the Linux 5.19 kernel there are some exciting networking improvements like big TCP support, PureLiFi drivers for light-based networking, WFX WiFi being promoted out of staging, and much more. Now with the in-development Linux 6.0 there is a lot more work in store...  ( 5 min )
    Intel Core i7 1280P Windows 11 vs. Ubuntu vs. Clear Linux Performance
    After recently looking at the AMD Rembrandt Windows 11 vs. Linux performance using the new Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U laptop SoC, you may be wondering about the latest Windows vs. Linux performance over on the Intel side with their latest "Alder Lake P" wares. If so, today's benchmarks are for you with putting the Core i7 1280P on Windows 11 up against Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and Intel's own Clear Linux platform.  ( 5 min )
    Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS Preparing For Release With Retbleed Patched, Intel AMX, Other Fixes
    Canonical is putting the finishing touches on Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS that is due for release tomorrow as the first collection of stable release updates in re-spun ISO form for this "Jammy Jellyfish" long-term support series...  ( 5 min )
    Linux 6.0 Graphics Driver Changes Preparing For Intel DG2/Alchemist & AMD RDNA3
    Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) subsystem maintainer David Airlie has submitted all of the open-source GPU/display driver updates for the Linux 6.0 (nee 5.20) merge window. Much of this work is centered around bringing up the Intel Arc Graphics DG2/Alchemist discrete graphics cards and on the AMD side continued work around enabling RDNA3 and Instinct MI300 graphics processors...  ( 5 min )
    Intel's Open-Source SVT-AV1 v1.2 Video Encoder Released - More AVX2 Optimizations
    Earlier this year Intel released SVT-AV1 1.0 as a big update to this leading open-source AV1 video encoder. Since then they have not let up and now three months after v1.1, SVT-AV1 1.2 is now shipped as the latest update to this cross-platform, high performance AV1 encoder...  ( 5 min )
    Linux 6.0 HID Brings AMD SFH v1.1 Support, XP-PEN Deco L Tablet Support
    The HID subsystem updates for the Linux 6.0 (nee 5.20) kernel have been submitted...  ( 4 min )
    OBS Studio 28 Beta 1 Brings 10-bit & HDR Video Encoding, Qt6 Toolkit
    OBS Studio as the popular, cross-platform, open-source software widely used by live-streamers is working on its next major release...  ( 4 min )
    SteamOS 3.3 Now Available With Many Improvements For The Steam Deck
    Valve this evening has begun shipping SteamOS 3.3 to Steam Deck customers as the latest version of their Arch Linux based software stack initially targeting their handheld game console...  ( 4 min )
    Fedora 37 To Offer Official Support On Raspberry Pi 4 Devices
    A month ago there was the Fedora 37 change proposal for Fedora to officially support the Raspberry Pi 4, including its accelerated Broadcom graphics and to better advertise Fedora for the Raspberry Pi. The Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee (FESCo) has now signed off on this "official" support for the Raspberry Pi 4...  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Magstarka Scorn tar runt 6–8 timmar från start till mål
    Inte trippel-A men väl "AA", hälsar teamet.  ( 7 min )
    Kirby and the Forgotten Land slår (snart) Kirby-rekord
    Kirby's Dream Land har (hittills) sålt bättre.  ( 7 min )
    Halo Infinites öppna värld blev mindre och mindre varierad än ursprungsvisionen: "Hann inte"
    343i tvingades prioritera.  ( 7 min )
    111 miljoner sålda Switch-konsoler, men försäljningen mattas
    Det går trögare för Playstation och Xbox. Nintendo hakar på trenden.  ( 7 min )
    Square Enix kräver att podcast med "läckt" Tomb Raider-manus plockas ner
    Talar för dess äkthet?  ( 6 min )
    Hokko Life! Steams svar på Animal Crossing till konsoler i september
    Kliver dessutom ur early access-läget.  ( 6 min )
    Diablo Immortal må vara utskällt, men har hejdat vikande spelarsiffror för Blizzard
    En ökning med 5 miljoner sedan mars.  ( 7 min )
    Snabbkollen - Spelar du mindre Call of Duty nu för tiden?
    CoD tappar spelare. Är du en av de som fallit ifrån?  ( 7 min )
    På söndag får vi "ny information" om Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
    Det luktar multiplayer-info.  ( 7 min )
    EA nöjda som oberoende, men stänger inte dörren för att bli uppköpta
    Andrew Wilson öppen för förändringar.  ( 7 min )
    Skräck-smygarspelet Gloomwood försenas, meddelar skådisen Malcolm McDowell
    Men lyckligtvis bara i några veckor.  ( 6 min )
    Electronic Arts säger att singleplayer-spel är väldigt viktiga för dem
    Men live service drar fortfarande in merparten av alla pengar.  ( 7 min )
    EA har ingått ett samarbete för att inkludera LaLiga i FC Sports Club
    Det vankas spanska mästerskap även efter Fifa-uppbrottet.  ( 7 min )
    Assassin's Creed Valhalla har fått ett nytt, gratis spelläge
    The Forgotten Saga skickar oss till Nifelheim.
  • Open

    Open-world puzzler Project S looks like The Witness meets Breath Of The Wild
    Puzzles are fun. Exploring floating islands is pretty boss too. That’s why open-world puzzle game Project S: A Mystical Quest, announced at the end of the Behaviour Beyond stream today, has me raising an intrigued eyebrow as I lower my pipe to peer from behind a broadsheet newspaper. “I say, that looks rather like Breath Of The Wild, but with bits from The Witness and a faint hint of Myst,” I declare to Watson. “Astute observation, Wheeler,” he replies, “but why don’t you have a proper look at the trailer below?” Read more  ( 16 min )
    Hooked On You: A Dead By Daylight Dating Sim just launched on Steam
    Pulling killers isn’t something a lot of people dream about in real-life, but some Dead By Daylight fans are thirsty indeed for that game’s many murderous characters. Good news for them today then, because visual novel Hooked On You: A Dead By Daylight Dating Sim just surprise-launched exclusively on Steam. Watch the trailer below to see a more playful side to four of DBD’s serial killers, which isn’t something I ever thought I’d type. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Resident Evil big-bad Albert Wesker is coming to Dead By Daylight soon
    The Umbrella Corporation’s favourite stooge Albert Wesker is back again, and he’s bursting into multiplayer survival horror Dead By Daylight as a new killer, The Mastermind. Wesker’s arrival is the second time Resident Evil has crossed over into DBD, but the upcoming Project W event will revamp the Raccoon Police Department map and bring along familiar Resi characters Rebecca Chambers and Ada Wong as playable survivors. Barricade yourself inside the police station of your mind and watch the trailer below. Read more  ( 16 min )
    This massive 4TB NVMe drive is just $290 at B&H Photo
    4TB NVMe drives normally cost upwards of $400, but today you can pick up the new Crucial P3 for just $289.99 after a $60 discount at B&H Photo. That's incredible value, working out as just 7 cents per gigabyte, and marks a sea change in the affordability of NVMe SSDs. (By comparison, the same drive costs £348 in the UK - the equivalent of $423.) Read more  ( 16 min )
    Apocalyptic FPS Meet Your Maker will have you raiding and defending forts in 2023
    Freshly announced looter-shooter Meet Your Maker lets you tear the post-apocalypse down with extreme prejudice - but you’ll have to build up your own walls first. It combines building futuristic fortresses with raiding them for life-giving genetic material, either solo or in two-player online co-op. Revealed during today’s Behaviour Beyond stream, Meet Your Maker is the next game from the devs behind survival horror Dead By Daylight. Check on how the post-apocalypse is faring in the trailer below. Read more  ( 17 min )
    MSI Oculux NXG253R review: Nvidia Reflex is sharp, but 360Hz is still unnecessary
    Even if you’re not “into” PC gaming hardware, spend enough time in its orbit and you’ll eventually develop a healthy scepticism for a specific type of electro-trickery. The kind that promises, naturally with the right purchases, to help you shoot better or drive cars faster or generally be a more PRO ELITE WINNER in competitive games. For me, there have been two such technologies I’ve never really bought into: ultra-high 360Hz monitor refresh rates, and Nvidia Reflex, a kind of setup-wide latency reduction system. Now, having spent some quality time with the MSI Oculux NXG253R – which features both – I’ll cop to being wrong about one of them. Read more  ( 19 min )
    THQ Nordic publishing AEW: Fight Forever; wrestling games now almost a circle
    All Elite Wrestling announced like, I dunno, three games at once a couple of years ago. They all sounded terrible and we haven't posted about them (also because a bunch of them aren't on PC). AEW: Fight Forever, still officially Coming Soon, is their first crack at a sweaty graps sim to rival WWE's series, and today it was confirmed the publisher is THQ Nordic. This not only means that we'll see more gameplay at next week's THQ Nordic showcase, per a tiny teaser, but it adds another horse to the confusing carousel of companies that have worked on wrestling sims. Read more  ( 17 min )
    What's better: Cameras which actually take pictures, or running into a wall so fast you hurt yourself?
    Our last deliberations ran a little long because I was away, but I'm now back to make it final: you decided that demos are better than gibs (by a pretty close margin). You have chosen your favourite little bits—of games, not corpses—and our quest resumes. This week, we pick between two forms of really committing to a game's reality. What's better: cameras which actually take pictures, or running into a wall so fast you hurt yourself? Read more  ( 18 min )
    New game Roller Drama gives my friends who do roller derby even more ways to do roller derby
    Whomst among us didn't watch Whip It over a decade ago and think about giving full-contact skating sport a go, before falling over on once and deciding to pack it in? I have a bunch of friends who persisted and now spend their weekends in gyms and car parks, where they skate under 11/10 names like Correctional Felicity and give each other huge bruises. I can't be sure, but from their activity on social media I estimate they spend about 114% of their time being excited about roller derby, which I endorse. Now both they (and people like me, who find wheels frightening), can spend even more free time on roller derby with the annoucenment of 2023's sports management game Roller Drama. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Square Enix on bringing characters to life and ditching episodes for Life Is Strange: True Colors
    It’s fair to say that Deck Nine had a lot to prove with Life Is Strange: True Colors. While it wasn’t their first Life Is Strange - the Colorado studio released the spin-off game Before The Storm in 2017 - it was the first time they were tasked with creating their own world and characters, instead of inheriting Dontnod’s creations. Fortunately Deck Nine successfully managed the tightrope walk of honouring the series’ existing DNA, while still taking the Life Is Strange world in new directions. To find out more about how it was done, I sat down with Philip Lawrence and Sarah Van Rompeay, respectively the Senior Narrative Designer and Senior Producer at Square Enix External Studios. Read more  ( 19 min )
    Chunky Steam Deck update adds overheat warning, docked mode improvements, performance fixes and more
    The latest Steam Deck software update, comprised of both a client update and SteamOS 3.3, is out now. It’s a fat stack of improvements and fixes, too, including a handful of brand new features. You can read the full patch notes on Steam, but I’ll give you the highlights, which include a new warning that pops up when the Steam Deck’s temperature “goes outside the safe operating range”. When it starts throttling, in other words, a threshold that many Deck owners have been discovering during recent heatwaves. I have an overheating notification feature myself, only it’s just me typing “too hot” in the RPS Slack. Read more  ( 16 min )
    The Last Starship's devs show mining vessels and player feedback
    The first developer update video of The Last Starship focused on combat, which I thought looked pretty swish. The second developer update video for Introversion's space-everything game says, hey, this game isn't about combat, and talks about user-made ships, mining vessels and, in an additional video, early player opinions of the playtest. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Switch sales fall 23% due to shortage of semiconductor components
    Nintendo has released its Q1 financial report for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023, noting a decline in both net sales and movement of Switch consoles. According to Nintendo, overall sales fell 4.7% to $2.3 billion. There were noted declines in both the video game platform and mobile sectors. The former saw a decline of 4.3%, while mobile, IP-related income fell 16.8%. In hardware, Switch sales declined 22.9% to 3.43 million units partially due to the addition of the Nintendo Switch – OLED Model with its high unit price to the hardware lineup. But Nintendo said that factors such as the global shortage of semiconductor components impacted production, resulting in a decrease in hardware shipments and a subsequent decline in overall sales. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Blizzard and NetEase have canceled development on a World of Warcraft mobile game
    Blizzard and NetEase had a World of Warcraft mobile game in the works, but the companies have apparently canceled development on the project. This is according to a Bloomberg report which states the mobile version of the MMO was in development for three years before being canceled. The report states the cancellation resulted in the disbandment of a 100-strong team at NetEase, with only some offered positions elsewhere in the company. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Logitech G and Tencent are bringing a cloud gaming handheld to market later this year
    Logitech G and Tencent Games have announced a partnership to bring a cloud gaming handheld to market. The new device will support multiple cloud gaming services, and both companies are working with the Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now teams which will allow you to play youe games when away from your conosle or PC. "Logitech G’s leadership in PC and console gaming gear make them an ideal partner to help us realize the vision of bringing a better gaming experience to gamers around the globe," said Daniel Wu, general manager of Tencent Games Smart Solution Innovation Lab. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Pokemon Scarlet and Violet stream details Terastel forms, ridable Legendaries, and Tera Raids
    A Pokemon Presents was held today by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company International, and it revealed more details about Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet. During the stream, a glimpse of the Paldea region was given, we were introduced to five new characters, three Pokemon (Fidough, Paldean Wooper, and Cetitan) were revealed, the Terastel Phenomenon was announced, and information on Tera Raid Battles was provided. Set in the Paldea region, a land filled with open spaces, lakes, mountains, and even wastelands, the game features plenty of people and Pokemon living together in various locations. The land is filled with Pokemon living in treetops, rivers, and wilderness locations. Read more  ( 18 min )
    NBA 2K23 gameplay changes have been revealed - improved accessibility, new techniques, and better AI
    NBA 2K23 is nearly with us, releasing September 9 this year. In the build up to launch, we’ve learnt a lot about the gameplay changes coming to the hugely popular basketball game. This includes improvements to shooting, dribbling, and blocking with new gesture combos, AI improvements, accessibility features and more. We’ve broken down each major change coming with the latest release from 2K, so if you want to hit the court running, check out each major gameplay change coming to NBA 2K23 below! First, there’s the pro stick and a vast selection of new gesture combos coming to it. Players have been able to flick or hold the stick to do more complex shots since 2K21, but with this entry, a new selection of options are coming for dexterous players. Speaking of shots, skill dunks were a tad too strong last year, so that’s been touched up to be more complex. This includes a physics-based rim hanging system. Read more  ( 16 min )
    This week's Sea of Thieves update lets you be the captain of your very own ship
    It’s not long until Sea of Thieves’ seventh season goes live following its delay, and as per usual, a major content update will be going live alongside it. This particular update, which focuses on Captaincy, has been long-awaited, much anticipated, and might just see me return to the game. After all, who doesn’t want to be the Captain of their own boat? The Captaincy update will introduce features to Sea of Thieves that players have been requesting since the game was released, so it’s a pretty big deal for many keen pirates. You’ll be able to hop aboard your ship and get customising when the update goes live at 2am PT / 5am ET / 10am BST on August 4, 2022. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Stardew Valley creator shares unseen screenshot of upcoming project, Haunted Chocolatier
    When it comes to solo developer and creator of Stardew Valley, Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone, certainly knows how to get fans excited. Honestly, it doesn’t take much. Barone took to twitter to share an unseen-before screenshot of his upcoming project, Haunted Chocolatier, and has amassed plenty of likes and love in under 24 hours. While still trying to find a way to port Stardew Valley’s huge 1.5 update to mobile, which should release by the end of the year, Eric Barone has been chipping away at the development of their next project, Haunted Chocolatier. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Play Crossword Puzzle Games on Linux Desktop With this Brand New GNOME App
    Like solving crosswords? Exercise your brain by solving crossword puzzles from various news outlets and websites on your Linux desktop.  ( 24 min )
  • Open

    Chemtrails
    No content preview  ( 1 min )

  • Open

    AMD Ryzen 7000 Zen 4 CPU Emerges with DDR5-6400 RAM
    The DDR5 clocks are much less important than the HWBot stalwart source sharing evidence of an AMD Ryzen 7000 CPU in testing.  ( 58 min )
    AMD Says 5nm Ryzen 7000 to Launch This Quarter, High-End RDNA 3 GPUs This Year
    AMD CEO Lisa Su announced that the company's 5nm Ryzen 7000 processors will launch later this quarter, while the high-end RDNA 3 GPUs will launch later this year.  ( 59 min )
    Best Ultrabooks and Premium Laptops 2022
    Our picks for the best ultrabooks (super thin and light notebooks), along with other premium laptops now.  ( 76 min )
    Best Gaming Laptops of 2022
    Here are our favorite gaming laptops for every need, based on our testing and reviews.  ( 74 min )
    Single-Core PC Breaks Post-Quantum Encryption Candidate Algorithm in One Hour
    Researchers from the Computer Security and Industrial Cryptography group at KU Leuven have used a single-core classical computer and advanced mathematics to take down a post-quantum cryptography algorithm.  ( 60 min )
    Samsung's Next-Gen Flagship 990 Pro PCIe 5.0 SSD Listed
    Samsung getting ready to release new flagship client SSD.  ( 59 min )
  • Open

    3 years after launch, Apple Arcade loses 15 games
    Apple's game subscription service isn't immune to the usual downsides.  ( 5 min )
    EA cracks down on modders selling their custom Sims 4 content
    But publisher leaves lucrative loophole for "early access" Patreon subscriptions.  ( 6 min )
    Avowed bitcoin creator Craig Wright is not happy with £1 win in UK libel lawsuit
    What the judge calls "deliberately false," Wright calls misunderstood evidence.  ( 5 min )
    What do we do about all the people who can’t charge an EV at home?
    Two-thirds of US drivers can charge at home—that leaves plenty who can't.  ( 5 min )
    SEC: Crypto fraudsters raised $300M with “textbook pyramid and Ponzi scheme”
    Victims lured with "smart contracts" on Ethereum, Tron, and Binance blockchains.  ( 5 min )
    GaN-powered Thunderbolt 4 dock wants to rid data-hungry setups of power bricks
    Hyper-brand dock has four power-delivering Thunderbolt 4 ports, seeks crowdfunding.  ( 6 min )
    Raspberry Pi 4 expands 3D potential with Vulkan update
    Developers and Android games get more-robust access to the GPU.  ( 5 min )
    Some Studio Display owners are having audio problems; software fix may be coming
    Short-term fix is simple, and a more permanent fix should be doable in software.  ( 5 min )
    Why space debris keeps falling out of the sky—and will continue to do so
    "All spacefaring nations should follow established best practices."  ( 5 min )
    The age of brain-computer interfaces is on the horizon
    Synchron has implanted its BCI in a US patient for the first time.  ( 5 min )
    Post-quantum encryption contender is taken out by single-core PC and 1 hour
    Leave it to mathematicians to muck up what looked like an impressive new algorithm.  ( 6 min )
    NY county with polio has pitiful 60% vaccination rate; 1,000s may be infected
    Hundreds need to be infected for one paralytic case to arise. And the virus keeps moving.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    This week's best gaming laptop deal is a Lenovo Legion 5i Pro 16 w/ RTX 3070 Ti
    We spotted a rare discount on Lenovo's brand new Legion 5i Pro 16 laptop, and it's a high-end model with a 12th-gen Core i7 processor, RTX 3070 Ti graphics card and a stunning 16-in 2560x1600 165Hz display. Normally this laptop retails for £1500, but thanks to an Ebay code (AUG15) you can take £60 off. This isn't a massive discount, but it's a notable price reduction for a laptop that is literally brand new with the latest-gen tech inside. Read more  ( 16 min )
    We Are OFK's episodic indie-pop adventure will launch this month
    We Are OFK, a narrative game about an indie-pop band, will launch its first two episodes on August 18th. The following three episodes will then release weekly on August 25th, September 1st and September 8th. There's a new trailer below and it looks gorgeous. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Get MSI's 360mm AiO CPU cooler for £70
    Right now a combination of a Box discount and an Ebay voucher code are making two MSI AiO liquid CPU coolers extremely cheap. The 360mm CoreLiquid 360R is down to £60 when you use code AUG15, while the CoreLiquid 280R is down to £52 using the same one. This is a massive reduction from their original prices and a frankly unbeatable deal for a liquid cooler with decent fans, RGB lighting and good thermal performance. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Logitech are making a cloud gaming handheld with Tencent
    Logitech and Tencent Games are partnering to create a handheld device tailored for cloud gaming. There are no images of it yet, but the handheld will support multiple cloud gaming services including Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now when it launches later this year. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Assassin's Creed Valhalla goes roguelite with today's free Forgotten Saga update
    Assassin’s Creed Valhalla may have seen the last of its paid DLC with Dawn Of Ragnarök in March, but today’s free Forgotten Saga update is hoping to draw you back into the game again and again. That's because it's inspired by roguelites, see. Refresh your memory about Valhalla by watching the trailer below. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Pre-ordered Marvel’s Spider-Man on Steam? Valve say you might want to get a refund
    With cancelled pre-order comes small discount. Isn’t that the motto of Spider-Man? Well, it’s close enough under the circumstances. Steam have recommended scrapping your pre-order of upcoming webslingathon Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered because the game was priced too high in some territories. The price drop only applies in a few regions, but means that anyone who pre-ordered the game there might want to cancel theirs and buy it again. Or, you know, just wait until the game’s out. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Riot’s Project L beat ‘em up is free-to-play and has ghost tentacles
    Riot Games have been quiet so far this year on their in-the-works Project L, a 2.5D fighting game set in the League Of Legends universe. Not so much now though, as the game’s senior director Tom Cannon has revealed that Project L will be free-to-play. You can also catch a glimpse of the newly announced hero Illaoi in the video below. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Cyberpunk: Edgerunners' new trailer channels Ghost In The Shell to bring its cyborg posse together
    With only a month or so to go until the anime spin-off of Cyberpunk 2077 hits screens, Netflix and CD Projekt have fired out a full trailer for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. It has a little more background for the main characters, and introduces their cyborg posse. Watch the very edgy trailer below. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Steinar H. Gunderson: AV1 live streaming: The bitrate difference
    As part of looking into AV1, I wanted to get a feel for what kind of bitrate to aim for. Of course, Intel and others have made exquisite graphs containing results for many different encoders (although they might have wanted to spend a little more pixels on that latest one…), but you always feel suspicious that the results might be a bit cherry-picked. In particular, SVT-AV1 always seems to run on pretty wide machines (in this case, 48 cores/96 threads), and I wondered whether this was the primary reason for it doing so ell. So I made my own test, with the kind of footage I care about (a sports clip) at the speeds that I care about (realtime). I intentionally restricted the encoders to 16 cores (no HT, since that was the easiest), and tried various bitrates until I hit VMAF 85, which felt l…  ( 2 min )
  • Open

    Chrome 104 Released With Region Capture Support, WebGL Canvas Color Management
    Google has promoted Chrome 104 to stable today as their newest feature update to this leading, cross-platform web browser...  ( 5 min )
    GCC 12 Profile Guided Optimization Benchmarks With The AMD Threadripper 3990X
    Last month I ran a number of GCC 12 compiler optimization benchmarks for this latest-stable compiler atop an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X workstation. Those tests included various optimization levels as well as link-time optimizations (LTO). Some Phoronix Premium supporters also requested to see some fresh GCC 12 Profile Guided Optimization (PGO) benchmarks, so here in this article are those PGO benchmark results...  ( 5 min )
    DXVK 1.10.3 Released With Shared Fences - Needed By Halo Infinite On Linux
    DXVK 1.10.3 has been released as the newest update for an upcoming Proton release, which powers Steam Play for allowing Windows games to run often very well under Linux...  ( 5 min )
    SPI Seeing Some Nice Performance Optimizations With Linux 6.0
    Performance tuning work to the Linux kernel's Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) subsystem will pay off for embedded systems and other SPI-heavy platforms with Linux 6.0...  ( 4 min )
    CXL 3.0 Specification Released - Doubles The Data Rate Of CXL 2.0
    The CXL Consortium today announced the Compute Express Link 3.0 specification that doubles the data rate of CXL 2.0 to 64 GT/s while introducing no added latency...  ( 4 min )
    NVIDIA 515.65.01 Linux Driver Released With Fixes
    NVIDIA today released their 515.65.01 Linux driver as the newest in the stable R515 series...  ( 5 min )
    GNOME Console Could Be Ubuntu 22.10's GNOME Terminal Replacement
    Back in May was a proposal by Canonical desktop software engineer Jeremy Bicha to use the new GNOME Console as the default terminal application in Ubuntu 22.10, replacing the GNOME Terminal. That default change hasn't happened yet but some necessary improvements have now been made to Ubuntu Kinetic's gnome-console package ahead of that possible shift...  ( 5 min )
    Rust Code For The Linux Kernel Updated With More Features Implemented
    Miguel Ojeda has posted the newest patch series implementing the Rust programming language infrastructure and initial sample code for the Linux kernel...  ( 5 min )
    Btrfs With Linux 6.0: Send Protocol v2, ~3x Boost For Direct Read Performance
    SUSE's David Sterba sent in the Btrfs file-system updates on Monday for the in-development Linux 6.0 kernel...  ( 5 min )
    AMD Prepares Linux Support For L3SBE Slow Memory Bandwidth Configuration, BMEC
    Some of the newest Linux patches out of AMD for new processors are implementing support for some recently-documented Quality of Service extensions: L3SBE and BMEC...  ( 5 min )
    GNU C Library 2.36 Released With New Functions, More Optimizations
    Released overnight was a new version of Glibc, the GNU C Library, commonly used by Linux systems as the default libc implementation...  ( 5 min )
    Linux 6.0 To Disable Printing On Consoles With Real-Time Kernels
    As part of getting PREEMPT_RT support ready to be mainlined at long last for real-time kernel builds, a number of Linux 6.0 (nee 5.20) pull requests have revolved around additional RT preparatory changes. With the printk changes for Linux 6.0, the console drivers will now be skipped in RT mode...  ( 4 min )
    Steam For Linux In July Shows A 1.23% Marketshare, AMD CPUs Now More Common Than Intel On Linux
    During the month of June the Steam on Linux usage hit a multi-year high point of 1.18% while for July there is another tick upwards thanks to the continued interest in Linux gaming around the Steam Deck...  ( 5 min )
    Long-Obsolete DECnet Networking Code In The Linux Kernel Expected To Finally Be Removed
    DECnet as a set of networking protocols from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) that date back to 1975 are expected to be finally removed from the Linux kernel. The DECnet protocols have long been obsolete, the Linux kernel implementation has been orphaned for more than one decade, and is code that belongs more in a history museum than the mainline kernel...  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Humble Choice has The Ascent, Hot Wheels Unleashed, A Plague Tale: Innocence
    It's a fresh month which means a new curated monthly bundle with the Humble Choice, so here's what's inside and what you can expect on Linux and Steam Deck.  ( 5 min )
    DXVK 1.10.3 out with work for Halo Infinite plus better Stray performance for Proton
    DXVK is a Direct3D to Vulkan translation layer used in Proton, to help run Windows games on Linux and Steam Deck. A new release version 1.10.3 is out now.  ( 5 min )
    Check out the new Scrabdackle demo, a scribbly hand-drawn Zelda-like adventure
    Go on a bit of adventure as a Wizard in Scrabdackle, you just have to find your wand first. This scribbly-art hand-drawn adventure is ridiculously charming.  ( 4 min )
    Frogun is a 3D platformer with the soul of a Nintendo 64 game
    Frogun is a brand new Native Linux release, designed in the spirit of the PlayStation 1 and Nintendo 64 era, this is a proper classic 3D platformer.  ( 5 min )
    BLASTRONAUT is a fresh mining game full of explosions
    Love exploration and mining? Want to do it with many explosions? Check out the new Native Linux release of BLASTRONAUT.  ( 4 min )
    ScummVM 2.6.0 out now with more retro game support
    Keeping a great many classics alive with new game engines, ScummVM version 2.6.0 is officially out now.  ( 4 min )
    Free first-person strategy shooter Unvanquished version 0.53 out now
    The free and open source first-person strategy shooter Unvanquished has a new Beta release, which is quite a big one too overall on what's changed.  ( 4 min )
    Inspired by classic JRPGs, Shadows of Adam gets improved Linux and Steam Deck support
    Shadows of Adam is a JRPG inspired retro game from Something Classic Games that released back in 2017 and a small update came recently to improve it on Linux and Steam Deck.  ( 4 min )
    Linux user share on Steam continues rising — highest for years again
    Valve has put out their usual monthly Steam Hardware & Software Survey and it's looking like good news for Linux and Steam Deck once again.  ( 7 min )
  • Open

    Över 1 TB lagring och 16 GB primärminne guldstandard enligt Steams användare
    Oculus Quest 2 klättrar till slut över 50-procentsgränsen. Samtidigt vinner större mängd primärminne och högre lagringskapacitet mark.  ( 6 min )
    Reservdelar för Samsung Galaxy-telefoner landar hos Ifixit
    I USA startar nu Samsungs reparationsprogram på allvar, där topptelefoner med något år på nacken kan repareras med officiella reservdelar.  ( 7 min )
    Gamers Nexus spyr galla över drivrutinerna till Intel Arc "Alchemist"
    Buggig mjukvara och ofärdiga funktioner tävlar om tid i rampljuset när Steve Burke släpper lös en flodvåg av kritik mot Intels Arc-mjukvara.
    Sony: "Blir Call of Duty Xbox-exklusivt följer spelarna efter"
    I brasiliansk utredning av Microsofts Activison Blizzard-förvärv menar Sony att spelseriens tillgänglighet över flera plattformar blir avgörande för framtida konkurrens.  ( 7 min )
    Snabbkoll: Har du skruvat på din dator i sommar?
    Sommaren har inte bjudit på några större hårdvarulanseringar, men det finns alltid ursäkter för att skruva på datorn. Har du gjort några hårdvaruingrepp?  ( 5 min )
    Tveksamma Arc A380 skäms bort med påkostat vattenblock
    Intels Arc A380 har inte fått ett särskilt varmt mottagande. Nu ser Bykski till att kortet får det fortsatt svalt, för den som känner sig manad att vattenkyla.  ( 6 min )
    Intel "Sapphire Rapids" kärvar – lansering kan skjutas upp ännu en gång
    När orosmolnen på konsumentsidan skingras hopar sig nya på serverfronten. Utvecklingen av "Sapphire Rapids" uppges gå trögt, medan AMD:s slagkraftiga "Genoa" står för dörren.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Cyberpunk: Edgerunners trailer shows off the Netflix animated series
    The Cyberpunk 2077 series from Netflix has a new trailer, and it shows off what to expect out of the anime when it airs this fall. The anime series will debut on the streaming service in September. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is a joint project between CD Projekt and Netflix. While set in the game’s universe, the show features a different story and takes place in a separate period. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Don't expect a Mortal Kombat 12 announcement at EVO 2022
    Those hoping for a Mortal Kombat 12 announcement at EVO 2022 should curb their expectations. That's because series creator Ed Boone has said as much. Instead, says Boone, the spotlight belongs to other fighting games during the tournament. Read more  ( 15 min )
    The Last Of Us Part 1 isn’t for everyone, and that’s okay
    Everyone’s definition of value is different. For video games, this means debates constantly encircle the topics of price opposed to content and the need versus greed of rereleasing older games on newer hardware. A prime example of these debates comes with this September's The Last Of Us, Part 1. A remake/remaster (I’m honestly not sure what to call it) of a game from 2013, this PS5 title will keep the core gameplay of the original, whilst improving the visuals, animations and AI, and add new DualSense capabilities, accessibility features and a slew of bonuses. The inherent value of The Last Of Us, Part 1 comes down to each purchaser's differing context. Some may have never played it before, be that because of a lack of accessibility options or access to hardware, whilst others may just want to jump back into one of their favourite games with some improvements. If this was a new version of Dark Souls, I’m sure I’d eat it up, even if I thought it was overpriced. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Activision revenues declined in Q2 due to "lower engagement" in the Call of Duty franchise
    Activision released its Q2 financials for the current fiscal year overnight, noting a decline in net revenue due to "lower engagement" in Call of Duty. For the second quarter, the company reported revenue of $1.64 billion, a year-over-year (yoy) decline compared to $2.30 billion reported during Q2 2021. That said, segment revenue and operating income grew versus the first quarter of the current fiscal year due to gameplay improvements and seasonal content made available across Call of Duty: Vanguard and Call of Duty: Warzone. Read more  ( 15 min )
    After Namco makes changes, there are major problems with the Tekken World Tour
    Tekken is a worldwide phenomenon. This was as true 20 years ago as it is now, long before world tours or stadium esports, with hubs of exceptional fighting game talent travelling across continents and oceans to compete against others in foreign lands. Icons of those early days like Ryan “Prodigal Son” Hart paid out of pocket to represent their countries and communities on enemy turf. These days, the practice of travelling for competition is more common with sponsorships, social media, and official systems like the Tekken World Tour boosting the profile of excellent venues run by a passionate few. Now more than ever, your own scene can test its might against the Earth's best. For a single weekend, the world can come to you. Except this experience may be in jeopardy for Tekken 7 players this year. The Tekken World Tour – an official Bandai Namco tournament circuit that in the past has done nothing but boost the prestige of global communities – may have undone this momentum with a handful of significant changes to its rules. With professional players, tournament organizers, and spectators alike puzzled by these adjustments, what are the repercussions of these changes for the worldwide Tekken scene? Read more  ( 19 min )
    If you pre-purchased Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered on Steam in these regions, you will want to cancel and re-order it
    Valve has announced it made a regional pricing error for Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered and has rectified the issue. According to the company, the pricing error affected the following countries: Australia, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Switzerland, and the UK. Other markets have not been affected. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Ghost Recon Wildlands, Two Point Campus, and more coming to Xbox Game Pass
    Microsoft has announced the first batch of games coming to Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass in August. Things kick off today with third-person military shooter Ghost Recon Wildlands for cloud, console, and PC. Later this week on August 4, Shenzhen I/O arrives for PC. Inspired by real-world electronics engineering, it takes you to a near-future Shenzhen, the electronics manufacturing capital of the world. This open-ended programming puzzle game tasks you with building circuits using various components. Read more  ( 15 min )
    MultiVersus players are making a stunning Daffy Duck concept character
    With any new game with a colourful roster of guest characters, fans of MultiVersus have been picking out their personal favourites they’d like to see make it to the popular platform fighter. Some, however, are bringing their passion to a whole other level with fan made animations and custom calling cards for a particular Looney classic: Daffy Duck. This all started thanks to one animator - Jordan Rutter. A junior animator at Playtonic Games, he started a side project creating a character concept for Daffy Duck at the tail end of July. From there, clips of combos, aerials, and special moves all inspired by classic moments from the lovable duck were quickly published online, gaining traction among the community. This excellent animation work in turn inspired some more creative juices to get flowing. Technical designer Dylan Micheli stepped up to the digital plate with their own Daffy work - this time a custom calling card for the character that you’d see in game, with all of his conceptual special moves included! Read more  ( 15 min )
    Life is Strange: True Colors is set to receive a prequel novel
    Life is Strange is set to receive its first novel for the episodic series, and it'll be a direct prequel to last year's game, True Colors. Announced via Twitter, the novel is expected to hit the shelves on March 21, 2023. The novel, which will be subtitled Steph's Story, will follow main character Steph Gingrich and her bandmate, Izzie, as they go on tour. This is the same tour that eventually lands them in Haven Springs, where the game True Colors plays out. This prequel is not the first time that Life is Strange has experimented with other mediums, with the series also having multiple comics attached to it since it's conception in 2015. These comics begin where the original game left off and the series of graphic novels only ended this year; if you've not yet read them, there's six volumes to catch up on. That said, you can obviously enjoy the Life is Strange games, and even the upcoming novel, without any prior reading! Read more  ( 16 min )
    The Sims 4's latest policy update cracks down on paid custom content and mods
    On Thursday, July 21, EA published a post regarding some policy changes concerning mods and custom content in The Sims 4. In the post, EA acknowledges how mods are an important part of the gameplay experience for most of The Sims 4 community, and it supports this. It also explained to readers how to go about reenabling their mods after they were automatically disabled following the most recent update to the game. However, EA has also laid down some new rules for the creators of custom content in The Sims 4, and understandably, the policy changes have led to panic and concern amongst players and creators. Read more  ( 16 min )
    MultiVersus has a Velma x Jake combo that is straight up broken
    MultiVersus has been out for some time now, with thousands of players bashing their heads together trying to find out the best and most busted strategies to score a win online. Initial strong picks like Taz and Bugs Bunny have been discovered and patched, but the latest peak of competitive jank comes from an unlikely combo: Jake the Dog and Velma. Showcased perfectly by a short Twitter clip from user LeviathanMVS, this combo allows players to quickly shoot off numerous hard to avoid projectiles from the pair. This, as you can imagine, chunks enemies for tons of damage struggle free. Here’s how it works. You first start with Velma’s Spread the Knowledge (down special attack) which has her throw a book towards her ally. If it hits, both Velma and her ally gain a massive burst of cooldown reduction! This at the start of the match, when your teammate is right next to you, is a cakewalk to land. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Battlefield 2042's latest patch introduces first map rework and player stats
    DICE rolled out a new patch for Battlefield 2042 this morning, making it the second since the launch of the game's first season in June. Update 1.2 will also be the last one before the new season begins in September. Much of the patch's content was revealed ahead of time. The headline is undoubtedly the map rework of Kaleidoscope, which the developer showed a work-in-progress version of a couple of months ago. The rework improves the flow of the map by adding a lot more cover, changing the flag arrangement, and altering train elevations. The map also looks different, exchanging the pristine look for a war-torn face. Read more  ( 15 min )
  • Open

    Nostalgimys åt ett nytt Twitter-konto som hedrar butiker i spel
    Även restauranger och caféer, om vi ska vara petiga.  ( 6 min )
    Pokémon-nytt! Stream imorgon ger oss nyheter om Pokémon Scarlet och Violet
    Pokémon Direct klockan 15.  ( 7 min )
    FZ Play ikväll - Cat Cafe Manager
    Kvällsfika med Mirror_Hime.
    Silent Hills i Dreams är en liten mardröm
    "In my restless dreams, I see that town."  ( 6 min )
    För första gången på 3 år faller Activisions aktiva spelarbas under 100 miljoner
    94 miljoner är ändå väldigt många miljoner.
    Henry Cavills gaming-pc fick värmeslag, men den mår bra nu
    Tack och lov.
    Xenoblade Chronicles kommer fortsätta "så länge som möjligt"
    Färska trean hyllas stort.
    Microsoft hävdar att Activision Blizzard inte gör några "måste ha"-spel för andra format
    Sony håller definitivt inte med.  ( 7 min )
    8 minuter från nya Sea of Thieves-säsongen redogör för kapten-content
    Lättar ankar på torsdag.
    Moddare tar din katt till Stray, mot betalning
    Du får också ställa dig i kö.
    Tidigare Massive-chefen David Polfeldt ansluter sig till Playerunknown Productions
    Ska hjälpa David Greene att främja en bra studiokultur.
    Här är de första 16 minuterna från Gotham Knights
    Inklusive spelets tutorial och inledande handling.  ( 7 min )
    Netflix-serien Cyberpunk: Edgerunners får sin första "riktiga" trailer
    Spana in karaktärerna vi kommer att stifta bekantskap med.  ( 7 min )
    Playstation ser ut att skrota Accolades-funktionen
    Ingen verkar vilja skicka uppmuntrande utmärkelser till andra.
  • Open

    EA has signed a branding partnership with La Liga
    La Liga, Spain's top football division, has entered "a one of a kind, multi-year partnership" with EA Sports. The league is home to some of the biggest football clubs in the world, such as Real Madrid and Barcelona. The sponsorship deal, which Marca reports will cost EA €30m euros a year, will include "title-naming rights for all La Liga competitions" and a "complete rebrand of La Liga with EA Sports including all logos, graphics, fonts and other visual elements". Read more  ( 15 min )
    There's a rubbish God of War rip-off on the Xbox store
    A cheap and god awful God of War rip-off has been made available to buy on the Xbox store. It's called War Gods Zeus of Child, is priced £3.39, and lets you jankily control God of War hero Kratos. Having bought the game and played it myself, I can tell you it is a worthless, minutes-long experience where you make Kratos slash aimlessly at a never-ending stream of enemies in an arena environment, until you give up or Kratos dies. Read more  ( 16 min )
    EEK3 promises spooktacular announcement showcase of low-fi horror
    Yes, E3 was cancelled this year, but do not fear. Another show has appeared. Rising from the grave of E3 is EEK3, an annual indie showcase organised by Haunted PS1. As the name would suggest, Haunted PS1 is a community dedicated to indie games that are reviving the 90s era of gaming with weird and uncanny aesthetics. EEK3 in particular focuses on retro horror games and has a penchant for the low-fi, low-poly offerings its community brings. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Xbox announces new games coming to Game Pass this August
    Xbox has announced the next batch of games coming to its Game Pass subscription service this August. Available from today is Ghost Recon Wildlands on cloud, console and PC, the Tom Clancy co-op military shooter from 2017 - we called it "beautiful yet callous" in our review. The remaining games coming soon are headed up by Two Point Campus, the latest sim game from the makers of Two Point Hospital. It's out day one on 9th August across cloud, console, and PC and judging from our preview will be well worth playing. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Music game We Are OFK set for episodic release in August
    We Are OFK, the pop music narrative game, is set to release on 18th August. The release will be episodic: the first two episodes will be out on 18th August, followed by episode three on 25th August, four on 1st September, and the final episode on 8th September. A summer release for the game was announced at Nintendo's Indie World Showcase, but now we have the exact date of arrival across Nintendo Switch, PlayStation consoles, and PC (Steam and Epic). Read more  ( 15 min )
    Don't expect any Mortal Kombat 12 news at Evo 2022
    For those that were hoping to hear more about the next Mortal Kombat game at Evo, it looks like there is Sub Zero chance of that happening. NetherRealm's Ed Boon has shut down reports that the developer would be making an announcement at this year's fighting event. "It's time for Street Fighter and other great fighting games to be in the sun," he tweeted earlier today. "Let's enjoy that!" Read more  ( 15 min )
    Diablo Immortal launch turns around two-year trend of tumbling Blizzard player numbers
    Diablo Immortal has stemmed the flow of falling Blizzard user numbers, and given the company a modest increase in monthly active engagement. However, Activision Blizzard's latest financial results show Blizzard active users have only recovered slightly - to where they were just over a year ago - and revenue remains down slightly year-on-year. After falling to 22 million monthly active users for the quarter ending in March 2022, Diablo Immortal has helped Blizzard back to 27 million for the quarter ending at the beginning of July. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Halo Infinite's open world was significantly scaled back compared to original vision
    The open world of Halo Infinite was significantly scaled back compared to its original vision. That's according to Joseph Staten, head of creative at 343 Industries, speaking on the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences podcast Game Maker's Notebook (thanks TechRadar). Infinite was the first open world Halo game so it's understandable there were several changes during development, but in particular the scope and biome variety were heavily revised. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Hitman 3 has a Monkey Island Easter egg
    A recent update for Hitman 3 added the tropical Ambrose Island map to the game. This map has a piratical theme, and so it is only fitting that Guybrush Threepwood from the Monkey Island series makes a showing on its shores. Please note that there will be some spoilers for Hitman 3's Ambrose Island map below. If you venture down from the Western Beach on Ambrose Island, you will come across a small nook in the coastline. Here, there is a gravestone set into the side of the cliff face. Read more  ( 16 min )
    It turns out I've been training for MultiVersus since I was born
    I spent five minutes with MultiVersus over the weekend, which turned into ten minutes and then an hour and then the best part of a morning. MultiVersus is great! If you aren't aware of it, it's a Warner Bros-themed Smash Bros-alike. You choose from a bunch of familiar characters, and then fight on 2D stages. Your aim is to get ring-outs by lobbing enemies off the screen, and the more damage you do, the further they fly when you hit them. Best of four wins. Simple. Not simple, obviously, and here's where an admission comes in. I love the idea of Smash Bros - and I particularly adore the way that the games have become sort of Nintendo museums, beautiful virtual dioramas in their own right. But I am thick and slow and these games have always looked fast and complicated. All of these Nintendo characters, some of which I am happy to admit I have not really heard of, fighting it out in astonishingly swift battles. I think there are two reasons MultiVersus clicked. Three actually, the bonus third being that I was playing alongside my daughter, whose enthusiasm for these things always carries me aloft with it. Anyway, the other two reasons: One, MultiVersus is new, so there's that sense of getting in on the ground floor. Even if people are turning up with Smash Bros experience - and they are, and it's helping them - the psychological toll is lightened, because this is a game that's been around for a few weeks at most. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Ubisoft's ex-Division developer boss joins PlayerUnknown Productions
    PlayerUnknown Productions has announced it has hired David Polfeldt as a senior advisor. Polfeldt was managing director of Ubisoft's Massive Entertainment for 12 years. He left the company earlier this year in March, as he felt that he wasn't "the right manager for what the studio has become". During his tenure at Massive Entertainment, Polfeldt worked on many of its leading titles and was part of the teams in charge of the delayed Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and a mysterious open-world Star Wars project. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Call of Duty fans switch off in their millions
    Call of Duty fans are switching off from the franchise, Activision's latest user figures suggest. Monthly active user data published by Activision shows player numbers have dipped over the past 12 months - from 127 million in June 2021 to just 94 million this year. The details are part of a tough round of financial results for Activision Blizzard this quarter, despite the recent and highly-profitable launch of Diablo Immortal. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Mega Drive Mini 2 will have tenth of previous retro console's supply
    Sega's Mega Drive Mini 2 console will only have a tenth of the supply compared to the previous retro console in North America. What's more, Western customers will need to purchase the console through Amazon Japan's storefront due to the ongoing semiconductor shortage, reports Polygon. The console was originally intended as a Japan-only product, but "by using Amazon's 'Japan Store' system, we found that at least a small number of units could be sold via Amazon.com, so a portion was allocated to make the North American version," says a Sega representative. Read more  ( 14 min )
    Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered PC price drop means pre-order customers now need to re-purchase the game
    Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered on Steam has been re-priced in a number of territories. Specifically, this is affecting those who pre-purchased the game in the UK, as well as Australia, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, and Switzerland. The new price is £49.99, down from £54.99. Customers will now need to cancel their pre-purchase of the game to receive a full refund and then pre-purchase the game again at the new price. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Fortnite - Epic's era-defining work in progress
    A few years back, in a bid to explain Fortnite's unexplainable world, Epic Games came up with the term "Snapshot" to describe, in-universe, why its battle royale matches can feature multiple people playing as the same Fortnite character, or why seemingly singular characters available in Fortnite - like Peely the banana, or The Rock, or Wolverine - can reappear under different guises. What is a Snapshot? Why is it a Snapshot? Dear reader, these are questions for another time. But the general term, at least, has stuck with me as I try to sum up what Fortnite was, and is, and will be. If you'd asked me five years ago today, I'd say it was a distinctly average PVE base building shooter - and the first time Eurogamer ever really covered Fortnite in detail was a preview of this now long-sidelined mode. If you'd asked me four years ago, as Fortnite's quickly-thrown-together battle royale was blowing up and footballers were doing its dances in World Cup matches, I'd say it was probably The Next Big Thing. Three years ago? Fortnite was established as a phenomenon, an industry-leading showcase of engine mastery and live service development that could pull off in-game stunts like no other. Want to blow up bits of the map in real-time with a giant volcano? No problem. Stage a giant monster versus mech fight and invite everyone in to see it live? You got it. Read more  ( 17 min )
    How real and virtual racing go hand in hand at Formula E esports
    This weekend the Formula E London E-Prix took place at the ExCel exhibition centre, the only top-level indoor and outdoor track in international motosport. It may not quite have the prestige of F1, but the sport is rapidly growing in popularity. And it's not just about electric cars, but virtual ones too. On Friday night the second Accelerate esports championship took centre stage at the London E-Prix. Streamed live on Twitch and YouTube, it saw drivers going head-to-head to win a share of €100,000. The esports arm of Formula E grew during the pandemic and a need to engage racing fans online. Now that's shifted towards expanding the audience of the sport, enticing fans to watch the real E-Prix through a love of video games and esports. Read more  ( 20 min )
  • Open

    KDE Plasma 5.25.4 Improves Plasma Wayland for Steam Proton Games, Fixes More Bugs
    KDE Plasma 5.25.4 is now available as a bugfix release to the latest Plasma 5.25 desktop environment series improving the Plasma Wayland session, Discover, and many other components. The post KDE Plasma 5.25.4 Improves Plasma Wayland for Steam Proton Games, Fixes More Bugs appeared first on 9to5Linux - do not reproduce this article without permission. This RSS feed is intended for readers, not scrapers.  ( 38 min )
  • Open

    Untitled
    No content preview  ( 2 min )
  • Open

    Comic for 2022.08.02 - White Lady
    New Cyanide and Happiness Comic  ( 5 min )

  • Open

    Steam Deck Beta update brings bug fixes, external display improvement
    Valve has released a small update to the Steam Deck Beta branch, mostly bug fixes but also an improvement for handling external displays. Here's what's new.  ( 5 min )
    Stealth-action game Republique is now FREE and Steam Deck Verified
    Consider this your quick tip of the week, as Republique from developer Camouflaj is now free to keep on Steam and it's also Steam Deck Verified!  ( 4 min )
    No need to wait on Valve, the Steam Deck Docking Station from JSAUX is great
    While many will no doubt wait on Valve for the official Steam Deck Dock, a lot of hardware vendors are coming out with their own versions. JSAUX are one of them and they sent over their Docking Station for Steam Deck for me to take a look at.  ( 7 min )
    Steam gets support for Nintendo Online classic controllers
    Valve recently released an update for the main Steam client, which amongst other things brings support in Steam Input for the Nintendo Online classic controllers.  ( 4 min )
    Valve bans devs from adding review scores and awards on Steam store assets
    There's a lot of places where developers can have their game logo across Steam, and some developers have been going pretty overboard with noisy images filled with extras. Valve is putting a stop to it.  ( 7 min )
    Mojang rolls out Player Chat Reporting into Minecraft Java
    Minecraft Java Edition 1.19.1 is out now and it comes with some controversial changes, that many players are not particularly happy about.  ( 7 min )
    Linux gaming overlay MangoHud version 0.6.8 out now
    MangoHud is probably one of my favourite open source projects giving Linux gamers a fancy HUD to display various performance metrics in a nice overlay. Version 0.6.8 is out now!  ( 5 min )
    OpenRazer new release adding support for more Razer hardware on Linux
    Razer make some pretty fancy hardware but, like a lot of vendors, don't exactly support Linux directly and so the OpenRazer project helps you out there.  ( 4 min )
    Linux 5.19 is out now, Torvalds released it using an Apple silicon MacBook
    The latest kernel release is out with Linux 5.19 and showing just how far Linux support for the newer Apple silicon MacBooks has come, Linus Torvalds did the release on one!  ( 5 min )
    Windows compatibility layer Wine version 7.14 is out now
    Windows compatibility on Linux continues to improve thanks to Wine, with the latest development release out now with Wine 7.14 available.  ( 4 min )
  • Open

    Here's how Sea of Thieves' captaincy features work in this week's big update
    This week marks the very long-awaited arrival of Sea of Thieves' captaincy update, and developer Rare has shared a detailed video breakdown of its new features - including ship owning, naming, and extended customisation - as part of its new Season 7 trailer. Those who've been with Sea of Thieves for the long haul might recall that captaincy features were originally planned for the game's very first post-release update, back in 2018. A development rethink after a wobbly launch saw those plans put on the back burner, so it was a bit of a surprise when they finally resurfaced some four years later during this year's not-E3. And now, with this Thursday's slightly delayed launch almost upon us, we have a much clearer idea of how the update will work, with Rare's new video suggesting at least one of the aims of captaincy is to answer player calls for more to spend their amassed in-game wealth on. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Netflix's animated Cyberpunk 2077 series Edgerunners gets full trailer
    Netflix is readying for the September arrival of its animated Cyberpunk 2077 series, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, with the release of its first full trailer, introducing some of the story's key players. Edgerunners, which was announced back in June 2020, is a 10-episode collaboration between Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt and Japanese animation studio Trigger, which has previously worked on the likes of Little Witch Academia and Kill la Kill. It tells the story of a street kid trying to survive in the technology and body modification obsessed Night City. "Having everything to lose," explains Netflix, "he stays alive by becoming an Edgerunner - a mercenary outlaw also known as a cyberpunk." Read more  ( 15 min )
    Battlefield 2042's 1.2 update brings first map improvements, character redesigns
    DICE has detailed its imminent 1.2 update for the beleaguered Battlefield 2042, which will, among other things, herald its first batch of planned map improvements based on the player feedback it requested earlier this year. This initial round of improvements will target Battlefield 2042's Kaleidoscope map, and will - as previously detailed - focus on adjustments to cover, intensity, line of sight, pathing, and traversal. These have been achieved by adding new flag positions, by placing new areas and assets around the map, and by raising terrain. DICE says terrain changes will "break sightlines and let infantry move more purposefully around the map", while new assets will "bring more tactical destruction", giving players new options as the environment evolves throughout a game. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Project L will be free to play, new champion detailed
    Riot has announced its upcoming 2D fighter Project L, which is set in the world of Runeterra, will be free to play. "One of our goals is to remove as many barriers as possible from you enjoying Project L," explained developer Tom Cannon in a new video, which can be watched below. "We want you to be able to play, no matter where you live, what your skill level is, or how much money you have to spend on a game." Meanwhile, Cannon has said the Project L team will be "respectful" of its players' "time and wallet" when it comes to monetisation. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Apex Legends Season 14 brings Kings Canyon overhaul and level cap increase
    Apex Legends' 14th season, officially known as Hunted, is right around the corner, and Respawn is currently in full-on hype mode ahead of its 9th August arrival. And now, following the official unveiling of new hero Vantage last week, the developer now confirmed a major overhaul for its original Kings Canyon map, alongside a level cap increase for players. Kings Canyon has, of course, been around since Apex Legends' launch back in 2019, and Season 14's extensive overhaul aims to improve some of the ageing map's more troublesome issues. Before we get to the mechanical stuff though, there's perhaps the most immediately obvious change - upgraded lighting and a new skybox, both intended to make for a "more immersive, vibrant environment". In terms of gameplay changes though, there's the new Relic point of interest, which is designed to help create a little bit more breathing space on the map in the early to mid game so squad battles are less likely to be interrupted by third parties. This has been achieved by filling the Skull Town and Thunderdome area sunk in Season 5 with sand and building a new series of winding, interconnected buildings for fresh skirmishes, complete with a giant skull centerpiece. Read more  ( 16 min )
    FIFA 23 Career Mode lets you play as a famous manager for the first time
    EA has detailed FIFA 23's Career Mode, which lets you play as a famous manager for the first time. In the manager career portion of Career Mode, you can use the likeness of a raft of famous managers from the Premier League, including Jürgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola, Antonio Conte and Thomas Tuchel. "We've seen feedback from players wanting to play as some of their favourite managers, and we're happy to say FIFA 23 enables you to play as one of the 350+ authentic football managers, of which 30+ have star heads, in Career Mode," EA said in a detailed blog post. Read more  ( 16 min )
    DF Direct Weekly on PS5 1440p support and The Last Of Us Part 1's gameplay reveal
    Welcome to the latest edition of DF Direct Weekly - the 72nd, in fact. This is Digital Foundry's weekly show, where the team down tools for an hour or so to discuss the latest gaming and technology news. After a couple of weeks away, myself and John Linneman have returned to the mics, discussing the latest PlayStation 4 firmware beta offering 1440p display support, along with sharing some thoughts on the latest The Last of Us Part 1 footage. VR is also a hot topic too, with Sony revealing new headset features in the same week that Meta ups prices on the Oculus Meta Quest 2 and the massive multi-billion burn-rate on its metaverse gamble comes into focus. Kicking off with PlayStation 5's 1440p update, we'll be covering this more extensively, but the headline points are fairly straightforward…  ( 18 min )
    Ride in style with Gran Turismo x Dior collaboration
    Gran Turismo 7 will be dropping new in-game items in collaboration with French luxury fashion house Dior. The collaboration was announced on 30th July at the World Series Showdown, a global online tournament for the Gran Turismo series. The items were specially designed by Kim Jones, British fashion designer and Artistic Director of men's collections at Dior, for inclusion in the game. This marks the first time Dior has ventured into a "virtual space". Read more  ( 15 min )
    Sony doesn't sound thrilled Microsoft is buying Call of Duty maker Activision
    A Brazilian governmental filing has given us a rare glimpse into Sony's thoughts on the impending $69bn Microsoft buyout of Activision Blizzard - and specifically, the fact that Xbox will soon own blockbuster first-person shooter franchise Call of Duty. In Brazil, companies within the same sphere of any such corporate transaction are asked for their thoughts on deals of this magnitude. And, intriguingly for us, Brazil also posts all of these details online (albeit in some cases with redacted passages). Sony's response is largely public, and contains a number of arguments which paint the potential of Xbox owning Call of Duty in a problematic light (as spotted by ResetEra, and translated for us by Eurogamer Portugal). Read more  ( 16 min )
    Someone has made a gaming PC from a toilet
    The internet is quite the place. You can find everything on here, from how to boil an egg to, checks notes, make a toilet into a gaming PC. Huh. But yes, it is actually a thing. This recent computer creation was made by Basically Homeless, who turned their loo into a fully functioning "12700 & 3060 gaming PC". Read more  ( 15 min )
    Innersloth almost put Among Us to rest in 2019
    A new interview with Innersloth co-founder Marcus Bromander reveals just how close the team came to moving on from Among Us. Bromander guested on the podcast Visionaries to discuss Among Us' rise in popularity, the impact it had on Innersloth, and what the company's next plans are. Among Us first released in 2018 but didn't see mainstream popularity until 2020. During that time, Bromander stated that he, along with fellow co-founder Forrest Willard and mutual friend Amy Liu, were working full-time on Among Us. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Pokémon Presents broadcast scheduled for this week
    A Pokémon Presents presentation - like a Pokémon-focused Nintendo Direct - is due on 3rd August - this Wednesday! We're expecting to hear more about this year's highly-anticipated Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, due for Nintendo Switch in time for Christmas, and hopefully another look at early fan-favourite Lechonk. Wednesday's show will stream from Pokémon's official YouTube channel at 2pm UK time and will be 20 minutes long. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Diablo Immortal player spends $100k on game, now can't find anyone suitable to matchmake with
    UPDATE 03/08/22: Blizzard has responded to the Diablo Immortal player who found themselves unable to get into the battlegrounds after shelling out an eye watering $100k in the game. In a new video, jtisallbusiness has revealed the developer will be releasing a fix for the issue. "Blizzard did reach out to me," jtitsallbusiness said, before stating that a Blizzard representative told them the company had "approved a fix" which will be implemented in the "next coming days". Read more  ( 16 min )
    Indonesian government blocks online services for Steam, Epic Games and more
    UPDATE 02/08/22: Following yesterday's story, Valve has now registered with Kominfo. As such, Steam is no longer blocked by the Indonesian government. PayPal and Yahoo services have also resumed in the country. At this time, however, the Epic Games Store and its services, as well as EA's Origin, are still blocked. Industry analyst Daniel Ahmed has stated, "there is no official confirmation on whether [Epic and EA] plan to register yet." Read more  ( 16 min )
    Here's footage of Deadrop, from the NFT-fuelled developer backed by Dr Disrespect
    Early footage of Deadrop has hit the internet, giving us a look at the project backed by controversial streamer Guy Beahm, AKA Dr Disrespect. However, fans of Beahm have given the footage a mixed reception - especially after the project was hyped up by the streamer and compared to Call of Duty. In June, a widely-shared comment by Beahm stated that Deadrop "blows out anything from the COD engine". What we're seeing today is a look at Deadrop as it stands currently, for those who paid $50 for a Founders Access Pass (yes, that's the one which includes a procedurally-generated NFT for your character avatar). Read more  ( 15 min )
    Sony ditching PS5 Accolades feature nobody used
    Sony is discontinuing the Accolades feature introduced on PlayStation 5 consoles. For the unaware (most of us), Accolades could be awarded to fellow players in online games to commend their gameplay - teammates and opponents alike could be welcoming, helpful and more. But according to an addition on the PlayStation website, the feature is being removed. Read more  ( 14 min )
    Modders discover Elden Ring's toughest boss used to be even tougher
    As if the game wasn't hard enough already, it turns out Elden Ring's toughest boss used to be even tougher. Dataminers have managed to access version 1.0 of the game - a version that was compiled on 8th October 2021, before the network test was held and before recent patches could be applied. As detailed on YouTube by Kotn3l (spotted by PC Gamer), the game's most infamous boss, Malenia, used to have slight differences to her moveset that made her even more aggressive. Read more  ( 15 min )
    This impressive fan-made Star Wars Jedi VR demo shows Disney how it should be done
    As much as I love Star Wars and as much as I love virtual reality, I've always been slightly disappointed by Disney's official Star Wars VR offerings. It's not that they're bad, mind. I've had a lot of fun with them, especially EA's Star Wars: Squadrons. My problem is that they always feel like they do the bare minimum when it comes to immersion or run time. I think Disney's episodic VR games like the Vader Immortal trilogy are a good example of this. The pitch for that series in particular is great. Use the Force! Shoot blasters! Fight Vader! But, it all comes at the cost of a very slow and plodding adventure that has the pacing speed of a Bantha. When they work, they work. But most of the time they feel like bite sized adventures that were built to pass the time in a queue for a ride at Galaxy's Edge, rather than be an epic space adventure in their own right. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Call of Duty dog skin images scrubbed following plagiarism claim
    A fluffy dog skin set to release in Call of Duty Warzone has been hit by a claim of plagiarism, and Activision has now pulled imagery of the upcoming pooch from its website. The claim of copying comes from concept artist and Call of Duty fan Sail Lin, who has highlighted images of their own dog skin design, originally uploaded to Artstation back in December 2019. Writing on Twitter, Lin said he was "very disappointed to see my work being plagiarised by a big company like Activision in this way". Eurogamer has contacted Activision for comment. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Best Month Ever! is a simple narrative with multiple, unexpected twists
    Best Month Ever! is such a (seemingly) unusual game that I didn't know what to make of it after seeing the original trailer, or even after checking out the demo. It's about a white woman named Louise, set in the US during 1969, where she must spend as much time as possible with her Black, biracial son Mitch. This is because Louise has been diagnosed with an illness and has only one month left to live. The story is told in flashbacks with a voiceover from an adult Mitch, contextualising the choices and decisions made by his mother at the time. Of course, these are choices you end up making through dialogue options throughout the game, creating a Louise whose future characteristics are based on Mitch's observation of your behaviour. It begins with Louise having to collect her final paycheck from her abusive boss at the nearby diner, with Mitch (supposedly) sitting in the car. Through his eyes, you observe Louise being sexually harassed and make a quick getaway after torching up the boss' car with an old lighter. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Analogue Pocket’s 1.1 update already paying dividends: Jailbreak, Neo Geo core
    "OpenFPGA" initiative pays immediate dividends, though it's not perfect yet.  ( 6 min )
    Visa knew about Pornhub’s child porn, judge says, and now must face trial [Updated]
    Visa claims the court's decision could affect the entire financial industry.  ( 7 min )
    Bungie shuts Destiny 2 text chat to stop malicious exploit
    Improper coding of Chinese characters let players weaponize copy-pasted text strings.  ( 5 min )
    Google CEO Sundar Pichai says productivity is “not where it needs to be”
    Pichai changes Google's promotion incentives, wants "more customer focus."  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    This AMD RX 6700 graphics card costs just £299 after a CCL discount code
    I was going to head in a different direction for my second deals post of the night, but when I spotted this deal on a great mid-range AMD graphics card I knew I had to double-dip on CCL's excellent summer sale. The British retailer is offering the AMD RX 6700 for £299 when you use code AFF15, bringing a PowerColor Fighter OC model down to the lowest price we've seen for this class of card. The 6700 is a strong contender for 1080p and 1440p gaming, and this factory overclocked model ought to outperform other options in the field. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Pick up an RTX 3080 for £724 today thanks to a CCL discount code
    RTX 3080 graphics cards are continuing their inevitable price decline, as at least one new next-gen GPU is rumoured to be announced within the next few months. That means it's a good time to pick up current-gen models at a discount while availability is good - and this RTX 3080 12GB model is the cheapest we've ever seen it. Right now, you can pick up this Gainward Phantom RTX 3080 12GB for £724 when you use code AFF25 at the checkout at CCL. If you're not familiar with CCL, the British retailer is a minnow compared to the whale of Amazon, but it's one that has existed since 1996 and has always proved reliable for me. Read more  ( 16 min )
    This visual novel takes you on a lovely little cycling tour
    While the Tour De France Femmes ended on Sunday and the Tour Hommes the week before, I'll not be rushed on my own Tour De Jeux. I can't keep pace with professionals so it's fine if I run long, and today I want to take my time and enjoy the journey. I'm playing Aran's Bike Trip, a visual novel/interactive diary/thingamy where Dutch indie dev Aran Koning (the designer of Stacklands) documents a two-day bike tour with 360° photos. It's a lovely little adventure, taking in sights including an art deco radio station and the tallest waterfall in the Netherlands. The waterfall is... about what you might expect in a notoriously flat country. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Microsoft defend Activision-Blizzard buyout by saying the company don’t make any “must have” games
    Microsoft have justified their $68.7 billion ($56 billion) purchase of Call Of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard by telling regulators that the company doesn’t produce “must have” games. If that’s making you ask why they’d stump up more than any other tech buyout in history for the privilege of owning a company that doesn’t have any killer apps in its stables, then you can line up right behind me, bosmang. Read more  ( 17 min )
    The Logitech G Aurora Collection: gaming peripherals for people who don’t like gaming peripherals
    Logitech have launched the Aurora Collection, a set of bright, customisable PC gaming peripherals built to be “gender inclusive”. Fortunately, that seems to be more than just pastel colours and cynical “For girls” marketing – the G375 headset, G705 mouse, and the G715 and G713 keyboards are all proper gaming-spec accessories, and they’ve been crafted by mostly female design and engineering teams based on feedback from women PC players. The G705, then, is a wireless mouse designed for smaller hands, while the G375 headset – also wireless – is proportioned to fit smaller heads and has more space in the earcups to accommodate earrings. It’s safe to say I’m not the Aurora Collection’s target audience, but having used the G705, the G375, and the G715 wireless keyboard as my main peripherals for a few days, I can say all three are pretty swish playthings regardless of how you identify. What’s more, their light, soft-cornered aesthetic is a nice break from the blacks, greys and harsh angles that have become standard design language for gaming gear. Anyone who’s ever cringed their face inside out at a peripheral resembling Megatron’s running shoe may indeed find these more to their tastes. Read more  ( 19 min )
    Apex Legends Season 14 breathes new life into Kings Canyon
    Apex Legends: Hunted is shaping up to be one of the most substantial updates to Respawn's beloved battle royale in recent times. The Season 14 update will drop in just over a week's time, and as well as the customary new Legend - youthful sharpshooter Vantage - we'll also be seeing lots of weapon updates, and some important changes to Apex's oldest map, Kings Canyon. Remember Skull Town? Well, it's back. Sort of. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Disco Elysium's devs might be heading into space with their next game
    Disco Elysium’s developers ZA/UM are looking for artists to work on their next game, which sounds very much like it could be heading to the stars. Whatever the project is, ZA/UM’s reference to Shakespeare’s play Hamlet in the job listing certainly suggests they’ll stick with the keen intellect of their last RPG. If you’re not familiar with Disco Elysium’s blend of ideology and role-playing then watch Astrid’s (RPS in Peace) video below. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Grindstone’s free Cosmic Darkside update brings eldritch enemies and a creepy new map
    Hack’n’slash indie puzzle game Grindstone has seen its biggest free update so far this year with the release of the faintly Lovecraftian new Cosmic Darkside scenario. The update adds fresh enemies, a cosmic-horror-themed map, and remixes some of Grindstone’s early levels. Watch the trailer below and try not to become infected by otherworldly monstrosities. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Screenshot Saturday Mondays: a hometown hero returns
    Every weekend, indie devs show off current work on Twitter's #screenshotsaturday tag. And every Monday, I bring you a selection of these snaps and clips. This week, my eye was caught by VR mecha violence, Dark Messiah-grade kicking and trap tomfoolery, and some Highland scenery from former RPS news gremlin Nat Clayton. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Spyro has been modded into indie cat hit Stray
    Four legs? Check. Adorable? Yup. Winged and purple? Wait, that’s not a cat. It’s only Spyro the dragon, modded into Bluetwelve’s hit indie miaow ‘em up Stray. Quite a decent fit too, Spyro me ol’ chum. It’s a bit like if Toys For Bob decided to give the plucky young drake his own version of Sonic Frontiers. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Steam Survival Fest starts stockpiling demos and discounts today
    It’s August! How did humanity manage to get ourselves to this point in the year? Well, Valve are celebrating with Steam Survival Fest from today through until August 8th, so good job for stocking up on all those cans of beans and endless loo roll. Although they do increasingly seem to be making trailers for these things, there isn’t one yet, so here’s vid bud Liam trying to claw back his three quid for survival horror Refund Me If You Can instead. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Bastian Venthur: Keychron keyboards fixed on Linux
    Last year, I wrote about on how to get my buggy Keychron C1 keyboard working properly on Linux by setting a kernel module parameter. Afterwards, I contacted Hans de Goede since he was the last one that contributed a major patch to the relevant kernel module. After some debugging, it turned out that the Keychron keyboards are indeed misbehaving when set to Windows mode. Almost a year later, Bryan Cain provided a patch fixing the behavior, which has now been merged to the Linux kernel in 5.19. Thank you, Hans and Bryan!
    Sergio Talens-Oliag: Using Git Server Hooks on GitLab CE to Validate Tags
    Since a long time ago I’ve been a gitlab-ce user, in fact I’ve set it up on three of the last four companies I’ve worked for (initially I installed it using the omnibus packages on a debian server but on the last two places I moved to the docker based installation, as it is easy to maintain and we don’t need a big installation as the teams using it are small). On the company I work for now (kyso) we are using it to host all our internal repositories and to do all the CI/CD work (the automatic deployments are triggered by web hooks in some cases, but the rest is all done using gitlab-ci). The majority of projects are using nodejs as programming language and we have automated the publication of npm packages on our gitlab instance npm registry and even the publication into the npmjs registry.…  ( 10 min )
    Junichi Uekawa: August.
    August. I think I finally understood what's going on in io_uring.
    Paul Wise: FLOSS Activities July 2022
    Focus This month I didn't have any particular focus. I just worked on issues in my info bubble. Changes SPTAG: print error reason duck: add (1 2), sort indicator phrases aptitude: fix GCC 12 FTBFS Debian security tracker: link GitHub advisories Debian packages website: sync contact footer Debian sysadmin scripts: use TLS not StartTLS Debian BTS usertags: fix some Hurd, ftp-master and release manager usertags Debian package uploads: tldextract, sptag Debian wiki pages: Arturo_Teslao, DebConf (23/Artwork, 24/Artwork/LogoProposals), DebianDay/2022/Netherlands/Breda, DebianRepository/SetupWithReprepro, DebianUnstable, Derivatives/Census (BOSSlinux, Ubuntu), ExternalEntities, Games/PlayIt, Hardware/Wanted, ICTL/TrustedOrganizationCriteria, KernelDKMS, LoongArch, MemberBenefits, Mobile, mtr, qa.…  ( 1 min )
  • Open

    IO_uring To Ring In Some Awesome Improvements With Linux 6.0
    IO_uring continues to be one of the greatest Linux kernel innovations in recent years and with the in-development Linux 6.0 kernel is getting even better along with some nice block updates and other storage-related enhancements...  ( 6 min )
    Linux 6.0 Has Some Big Scheduler Changes, Including Improved NUMA Balancing For AMD Zen
    Ingo Molnar today submitted the main set of kernel scheduler updates for the in-development Linux 6.0 (nee 5.20). The scheduler updates contain some notable changes that will be interesting to benchmark in the days ahead...  ( 5 min )
    Linux Driver Posted Enabling Bluetooth Support For Apple M1/M2, Some x86 Macs
    Sven Peter who has worked a lot on various aspects of Apple Silicon enablement for Linux today posted the patches enabling Apple Bluetooth driver support for Apple Silicon M1/M2 hardware and also for some Apple x86 Macs...  ( 5 min )
    Linux 6.0 Has Temperature Monitoring For Upcoming AMD CPUs, MWAIT For HPC Customers
    Among the early pull requests for the now-open Linux 6.0 merge window (nee Linux 5.20) are a few AMD additions worth mentioning...  ( 5 min )
    Mesa's Radeon R600g Driver Adds NIR Support For Pre-Evergreen GPUs
    Merged in early July to Mesa 22.2 was the rewritten R600g NIR back-end for improving older AMD Radeon HD 5000/6000 series graphics cards on Linux with this open-source OpenGL driver. That NIR code was limited to "newer" Radeon GPUs supported by the R600g driver while now it's been extended for supporting pre-Evergreen GPUs too...  ( 5 min )
    Unvanquished 0.53 Released For This Leading Open-Source FPS Game
    Released on Sunday was Unvanquished 0.53 Beta as the latest in a long string of betas for this one of the most promising open-source first person shooter (FPS) games...  ( 5 min )
    Linux 6.0 To Continue Advancing Its Random Number Generator (RNG)
    In addition to being busy leading WireGuard, Jason Donenfeld continues working heavily on the Linux kernel's random number generator (RNG) code. For Linux 6.0, a number of RNG improvements are ready...  ( 5 min )
    GNU Linux-libre 5.19-gnu Released - Continues The Uphill Battle Against Firmware Blobs
    Following yesterday's release of Linux 5.19 stable the FSFLA folks maintaining the GNU Linux-libre kernel released their downstream version that strips out support for loading proprietary kernel modules as well as stripping out drivers/support that requires non-free/closed-source microcode/firmware files...  ( 5 min )
    Linux 5.20 Likely To Be Called Linux 6.0
    In case you missed it in yesterday's Linux 5.19 announcement and to avoid reader questions/confusion in the days ahead, just making it loud and clear here: what was referred to as the Linux 5.20 kernel in development will most likely be called Linux 6.0...  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    The Last of Us till HBO "hedrar spelet", hävdar tv-seriens Ellie-skådis
    "Lyanna Mormont" lyssnar man på.
    Efter Quake, Turok, System Shock har Nightdive "några fler" fps-remasters på gång
    No content preview
    The Sims 4 drabbat av incest-bugg
    Liksom snabbt åldrande. Det är svårt att vara sim.  ( 6 min )
    30 november för nästa del i Dark Pictures-antologin...?
    The Devil in Me blir höstens skräckis.  ( 6 min )
    21,7 miljoner sålda PS5-konsoler ett svagt lyft, medan spelförsäljningen går neråt
    Sony redovisar resultat.  ( 7 min )
    Steam-stopp för betyg, priser och erbjudanden på spelens grafiska logga
    Valve vill göra det enklare och tydligare.
    Tidigare Xbox-chef menar att man "uppmuntrade" konsolkrig
    Peter Moore om rivaliteten med Sony.
    I nästa Tomb Raider-spel kan Lara leda "ett team med tomb raiders"
    Ett manus påstås ha läckt.
    Skull & Bones kommer inte drivas av en berättelse
    Finns narrativa bitar, men det är inte fokuspunkten.
    Sony höjer priser till höger och vänster, men svarar inte på om PS5 ska vandra samma väg
    "Vi har inget att dela med oss av."
    Cyberpunk-spelet The Ascent ska få mer innehåll
    "Förbered dig på ett helt nytt uppdrag."
    F.d. Witcher 3-utvecklare jobbar på actionspel i feodala Japan
    Online med fokus på både samarbete och rivalitet.
    Här är första titten på Dr Disrespects spel – Deadrop
    Som är väldigt tidigt i utvecklingen, ska tilläggas.
    Disco Elysium-utvecklarna söker nytt folk som "älskar scifi och rymden"
    Ska vi lämna jorden i nästa spel eller är det snarare en designfilosofi?
  • Open

    Microsoft Edge fortsätter knipa marknadsdelar – nära 11 procent
    I Statcounters globala sammanställning fortsätter Edge dra ifrån både Safari och Firefox, men i Sverige är avståndet till Apples dito inte lika stort.  ( 6 min )
    Jonsbo svalkar SSD-enheter med 14 000 fläktvarv per minut
    Varm M.2-lagring förpassas till historien när Jonsbo avtäcker en revolutionerande produkt, som kombinerar en vindtunnel och fläkt modell mindre.
    Intel Core i5-13600K och i7-13700K testas i spel
    Båda "Raptor Lake"-modeller visar på i snitt 10 procent försprång i lägsta uppmätta FPS och Core i5-13600K drar större nytta av DDR5.  ( 7 min )
    Sprickor i fasaden när Nothing Phone 1 överlever böjtest
    Med Phone 1 satsar Nothing stort på det estetiska, men Jerryrigeverything visar att telefonen klarar hårda tag, om än med minsta möjliga marginal.  ( 6 min )
    Geforce RTX 4070 Ti uppges möta RTX 3090 Ti
    Nu skymtas rykten om den kommande grafikkretsen AD104, som ska nå samma prestanda som fullfjädrade "Ampere" – motsägelsefullt nog till nästan samma effektuttag.
  • Open

    Project L will be free to play, with Illaoi joining the roster
    We’ve finally gotten our first piece of Project L news this year, and it’s a big one. Project L will be free to play! This may not come as a massive shock to fans of other Riot Games projects, but in the AAA fighting game scene this is a massive leap. In addition, it was revealed that the mystical bruiser Illaoi will also be joining the base roster of the game, as elaborated in a dedicated blog post. The video also gives a brief update on the current state of development for the game. The core gameplay development is finished, leaving character development, competitive or social features. Also, while microtransactions will be present Tom stated: We operate with one approach - if we don’t like it, we won’t do it. When it comes to monetization we promise to be respectful of your time and your wallet”. As it stands right now, there aren’t many big budget fighting games out there that have taken the leap into a free-to-play model. MultiVersus is the largest and most recent example and while it may have shot to the moon with 100,000 concurrent PC players on launch, it’s impossible to gauge what portion of that success comes from the free cost of entry or the colourful cast. Nonetheless, not having to pay to play is a massive boon for the title’s accessibility. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Let's be honest, Stray would have worked much better with a dog
    Stray is a deeply unbelievable game. It isn’t the hostile, fleshy monsters that chase you through the sewers which stretch credulity to breaking point. A race of maintenance robots that have evolved individuality and self-awareness after the death of their creators doesn’t seem completely outside the realm of possibility. What completely obliterates the willing suspension of disbelief is the ridiculous idea that a cat would ever help anybody. Have you ever heard of a bomb-sniffing cat? Seen anyone with a guide cat? Of course you haven’t. Yet Stray is a story about a cat that not only actively helps everyone it meets, but follows direct instructions. This can no longer be accurately described as Science Fiction, make no mistake – Stray is a work of High Fantasy. Stray depicts the journey of an ugly orange cat wandering through a robot-populated, quarantined city, inexplicably bringing happiness everywhere it goes. Every robot that meets it can’t help but beam at it, gigantic cutesy emojis flashing on their television faces. Absolutely everyone is delighted to meet it, melting whenever the horrid thing brushes up against them. Stray is quite simply a work of feline propaganda, creating a deeply unbelievable world where even the very notion of vague indifference towards the animal has been excised. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Sony is shutting down the PS5's Accolades feature because no one used it
    Sony quietly announced over the weekend that it is shutting down its Accolades feature, literally because no one used it. Doesn't it feel good when you're playing online on your PS5, and another player sends you an Accolade to say 'good job'? Sorry, what do you mean 'what's an Accolade?' If you haven't heard of the feature, don't worry, literally nobody else has, and Sony knows that too, as a notice was placed on the PlayStation website announcing the removal of the feature. "In fall of 2022, the Accolades feature on PlayStation 5 will no longer be supported," reads the notice. "The feature hasn’t seen the level of usage we anticipated, so we are refocusing our efforts. We encourage the community to continue to send positive messages to one another." Read more  ( 15 min )
    Respawn wants cross progression in Apex Legends "sooner rather than later”, working on in-game gifting
    A vast new sweep of information regarding the future of Apex Legends has been revealed, via an early press and influencer briefing we attended last week. Alongside multiple reveals regarding Season 14 and significant changes to Kings Canyon, we’ve learnt more about Respawn’s long term goals via a Q&A – including info on cross progression, ranked changes, and in-game gifting. These further out additions haven’t got any date attributed to them yet, instead being tinkered with in the background. According to senior game designer Eric Canavese: “We are actively working on gifting to other players right now, but we want to make sure it’s something people enjoy, something that doesn’t feel grindy”. On Cross Progression, Evan stated: “We’re actively working on cross progression, but there’s no release date on it. The game wasn’t built with it in mind, which makes it complicated. But I hear you, and I want cross progression too. It’s something we’re definitely working on – we want it sooner than later.” Read more  ( 17 min )
    Wo Long – the new game from Nioh devs – is getting a demo “in the near future”
    Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, the next game from the creators of Nioh, is set to receive a demon "in the near future." Announced at Xbox and Bethesda's Games Showcase in June, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is a new action title from Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo, and through an announcement on the game's official Twitter, it was confirmed that it would be receiving a "gameplay trial in the near future." The announcement was no more specific than that, though it did outline some other details we can expect. Like Nioh 2, Wo Long will also have a character creator, which is always fun to play around with. It sounds like similarly to Nioh it will have challenging gameplay, though considering the reveal trailer only included cinematics, it's unclear how the game actually will play. But we can probably assume it will build upon what Nioh established. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Upcoming games of 2022 that must not be delayed (because the rest of the year isn’t looking great)
    Okay, so we’ve already been over the so-so games coming in 2022 that we’re probably going to give a chance, but what about the games we actually can’t wait to play? Well, in this second part of the feature, we’ll be exploring that very subject. It’s clear most of the games that would easily end up on this list have been pushed back to 2023. That said, between the precious few that (so far) are sticking to their 2022 guns, and the couple of your under-the-radar, sleeper hit contenders still to come, this year won’t actually end up being that dire when all is said and done. As mentioned in the first part, this is obviously not an objective list; it only reflects my own picks. The two sets of games could easily be reversed if someone else was in charge, and it is admittedly easier to do this in our current 2022 than it would’ve been had even half of the games we thought we’d be playing actually arrived. Read more  ( 22 min )
    Evo Lounge announced - featuring developer reveals and curated show coverage
    Evo - the largest annual fighting game tournament in the world - has announced the Evo Lounge. This will be a dedicated live show running alongside the show August 5 - 6 that will present new game and DLC reveals, as well as curated highlights from the tournament itself. If you’re more interested in the big reveals than the hours upon hours of excellent competition, this is for you. According to an official PlayStation blog post, the live show “will feature top-shelf curated show coverage, bracket updates, interviews with players, and exciting content and reveals from developers and publishers". We know that Warner Bros, Arc System Works, Capcom, SNK, and Bandai Namco will be present. So, what is actually going to be shown off? While we don’t know for sure, recent events as well as the current fighting game landscape can help us make some educated guesses. The most obvious of which is Street Fighter 6, which was revealed earlier this year during a PlayStation showcase. With only five of the cast revealed (not via leaks), it’s likely that at least one new character will be shown at the show. Read more  ( 17 min )
    You can now play Stray as Spyro the Dragon
    Stray only released just a few weeks ago, but modders have already had a good go at transforming the indie adventure title. We've seen the likes of CJ (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas) and America's laziest furball, Garfield, make their way into the game so far, opening up an avenue for modders to do what they do best. The latest mod to capture our attention introduces Spyro the Dragon as your cute protagonist. I suspect there'll no doubt be a very long line of future character mods to come, but if I say so myself, this feels like the best and most-fitting so far (aside from people modding their own pets into the game!). Modder, MrMarco1003, has plucked Spyro from the Reignited Trilogy and popped them into Stray. They've even gone as far as replacing the other cats from the games prologue with fellow drakes, too. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Pokémon Presents airing later this week featuring Pokémon Scarlet and Violet and more
    A new Pokémon Presents is on the way later this week, which will provide "updates on Pokémon apps and video games, including Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet." The Presents is set to air August 3, 2pm BST/ 3pm CEST/ 9am EST, and will give fans a new update on the upcoming Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet. Last time we saw anything of the latest generation of games was back in June, where we received confirmation the game would be coming out November 18. There's also that Detective Pikachu sequel for the Switch that was revealed around the same time as Pokémon Sleep, which we have also heard nothing about since it was announced three years ago. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Elden Ring's Malenia used to slice and dice you a whole lot more
    Anyone that's come face to face with Malenia in Elden Ring knows she's quite the doozy, but a recent datamine found that she used to be even tougher. With the advent of day one patches, it's pretty rare that we're actually playing the game that arrives on the disc. This is also true of Elden Ring, as the 1.0 version's late game area Leyndell had some noticeable differences. And thanks to modder kotn3l, we now know what the 1.0 version of Malenia was like (as spotted by PCGamer). FromSoftware's games and bosses are often very complex, with almost puzzle-like enemies, as their patterns are something you need to figure out how to overcome. These patterns need a lot of fine tuning, and it's clear from kotn3l's video that Malenia's were a bit too tough compared to how she is now. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Masahiro Sakurai's Smash Ultimate screenshots to run out sometime in August
    Technically, Smash Bros. Ultimate and new content for it all came to an end back in October 2021, when Kingdom Hearts' Sora was introduced to the fighting game. However, Smash has continued to live on not just through its loyal community, but through the creative screenshots of its director, Masahiro Sakurai. Sakurai started, and committed to, a long-standing tradition of posting screenshots from the game to Twitter every day. These screenshots in particular have been of great joy and amusement to many Smash fans, simply due to the fact that Sakurai manages to capture characters and environments so perfectly in each of them. The below shot is definitely a perfect example of how passionate the Wii Fit trainers can get about a fight. That said, the playful tradition is set to come to an end. In a recent tweet, Masahiro Sakurai shared that it looks as though he'll run out of screenshots this August. He claims that he'd even taken an additional 200 screenshots towards the end of development, making it hard to believe they're gone so quickly. Read more  ( 16 min )
    MultiVersus is ahead of the curve tech-wise on PS5
    There’s a lot to love with MultiVersus. Whether it’s the cool cast of characters, the player-friendly approach to live service, or the healthy dollop of wackiness you really kind of need in this kind of light-hearted title. But for those who care about the performance of the games they play, or have a competitive streak, you’ll be happy to hear that MultiVersus is leading the pack on the technical side too! This was first discovered by Twitter user Nigel Woodall, a reputable input lag tester - who posted their discoveries online. The most crucial for players is an average input lag delay of 31.47 milliseconds on the PS5, which is less than two frames of delay at 60 FPS. Okay, so what does this actually mean? Well, in the simplest terms, it means that when you press a button on the PS5 while mashing away at MultiVersus, your move comes out fast. Hella fast, actually. Faster than any other fighting game on the platform right now by at least two frames. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Padloc: An Intuitive Open-Source Password Manager
    An open-source password manager with a pleasing user interface, available cross-platform. Let's take a look!  ( 24 min )
  • Open

    Comic for 2022.08.01 - Clown Town
    New Cyanide and Happiness Comic  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Omnitaur
    No content preview  ( 1 min )

  • Open

    Nyhetsquiz vecka 30 2022: Kvartalsrapporter och reportage
    Sista veckan i juli bjuder på en salig blandning av mindre nyheter, där många har koppling till de kvartalsrapporter som duggar tätt. Sätter du full pott i veckans quiz?
    Valve: "Alla som beställt Steam Deck får leverans i år"
    Långa kötider blir framöver ett minne blott, när Valve meddelar att problem i distributionskedjan nu är lösta.
    Intel Arc "Alchemist" pytsas ut under augusti och september
    Igor's Lab skriver att Intels mer kraftfulla grafikkort på sin höjd är ett par månader bort, men att företaget eventuellt vill tona ned lanseringarna.  ( 6 min )
    Söndagsmatiné: Hemmabyggd jättekamera sätter skärpedjupet i fokus
    Att separera en person eller föremål från bakgrunden är ofta önskvärt. Nu tar DIY Perks skärpedjup till nya nivåer.
  • Open

    Skull and Bones is "not a narrative game"
    Ubisoft's upcoming pirate game Skull and Bones is "not a narrative-driven game". That's according to game director Ryan Barnard, who revealed to True Achievements that whilst it will have "narrative pieces", focus on your player's own story and has "an underlying story", the adventure will not be "narrative-driven". "Skull and Bones is not a narrative-driven game," Barnard explains. “We have narrative pieces - in the game, you'll meet important NPCs called Kingpins which have their own stories that you'll learn as you develop rapport with them by taking on contracts with them. There is an underlying story to the game with which we build the entire world lore, but that's not the main focus. We want players to create their own stories and be able to choose the type of pirate they want to be. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Firaxis reveals more about Marvel's Midnight Suns' Doctor Strange
    Firaxis has released a deep dive into Doctor Strange's abilities, playstyle, and tactics from its upcoming strategy game, Marvel's Midnight Suns. Teaming up with (wonderful) content creator Christopher Odd, Firaxis's five-minute video lets us see how the sorcerer can be best utilised when the card-based strategy game finally drops later this year. As spotted by NME, Doctor Strange - a support hero - has some interesting tricks up his sleeve, including the ability to heal, protect, and completely conceal himself and allies in battle. Read more  ( 15 min )
    PlayStation 3: chasing the 1080p dream, part four - Gran Turismo 6 and the 2D renaissance
    It's the last chapter in one of DF Retro's most expansive projects yet. Across every Sunday this month, we've taken a look at 1080p gaming on Sony's controversial PlayStation 3. We've looked at the beginnings of the full HD dream from Sony's initial marketing claims, through to the late 2006 launch. We've seen triumph and disaster, along with a gradual metamorphosis, with 1080p coming into its own on smaller scale projects with less advanced visuals - punctuated by the arrival of stereoscopic 3D, requiring higher pixel counts, providing a backdoor to further 1080p support for the 'Triple'. In this final chapter, we cover the years 2013 to 2015 - a period of transition as the difficult PS3 era yields to the juggernaut success of PlayStation 4. 2013 proves to be an intriguing year for 1080p…  ( 20 min )
    Looks like new Resident Evil content is coming to Dead By Daylight
    It looks like Dead By Daylight has more Resident Evil content on the way. Whilst not formally confirmed by either developer Behaviour Interactive nor Resident Evil rights holder, Capcom, credible DBD leaker DBDLeaks has shared some very convincing assets, including images of the icons, outfits, charms, dialogue lines, and character biographies for Albert Wesker, Rebecca Chambers, and Ada Wong. Wesker - called "The Mastermind" - will be a playable Killer, and you'll be able to jump into the shoes of Ada and Rebecca as Survivors. While their perks are apparently yet to be finalised, DBDLeaks has shared what they say are Wesker's perks: Superior Anatomy, Awakened Awareness, and Terminus, which collectively allow Wesker to vault faster, see the auras of other Survivors whilst carrying one, and cause Survivors to be "permanently Broken when the exit gates are open". Read more  ( 16 min )
    Disco Elysium dev seeks artists with "a love of sci-fi and video games"
    Disco Elysium creator ZA/UM is looking for artists with "a love of sci-fi and video games" and the ability to create "non-earth environments". As spotted by the eagle-eyed members of the Disco Elysium subreddit, job listings for three new artistic positions at the studio are perhaps hinting what themes and motifs may be apparent in the studio's next game. Interestingly, fans of the RPG don't necessarily think this marks a big departure for the team, though, especially given "how much time [the creators] have put into cultivating the setting of Disco Elysium". Read more  ( 16 min )
    Google insists Stadia "not shutting down"
    No, Stadia "is not shutting down". Google responded to a new batch of online rumours this week by promising that it is "always working on bringing more great games to the platform". "Stadia is not shutting down," the company tweeted when asked outright on Twitter if closure was imminent. "Rest assured we're always working on bringing more great games to the platform and Stadia Pro. Let us know if you have other questions." Read more  ( 15 min )
    Xbox partners with the National Trust to recreate real-life castle ruins in Minecraft
    Minecraft developer Mojang has teamed up with the National Trust to bring Corfe Castle to life inside the game. Launching as part of The National Trust's Festival of Archeology, it's hoped the recreation will excite young people and get them more interested in historical landmarks, such as castles. "A thousand years of history and we've re-imagined it all in Minecraft's The Wild Update," Xbox explained on Twitter. "With the help of [historian Alice Loxton] and [content creator GrianMC] we restored the ruins of National Trust's Corfe Castle back to its former glory." Read more  ( 16 min )
    Harry Harrison's 1980s game book is a bit of a riot
    In the house where I grew up, I shared a room with two older brothers. I was a nosy kid, and I have a lot of happy memories of looking through my brothers' books and whatnot while they weren't around. One day - this is decades back; I can at least remember that it was sunny - I found a paperback that my brother Paul had picked up somewhere. Paul liked science-fiction This was sci-fi. It was by Harry Harrison, and it was one of his Stainless Steel Rat novels. Actually, it was a very special one, an odd one. But we'll get to that in a second. Harry Harrison was a big deal in 20th century sci-fi, a writer who moved from illustrating comics to turning out novels that existed in the raggedy edge-lands between parodying space operas and reveling in their excesses. However he handled things, he always brought an anti-war message that was sometimes hidden, given the rather conservative genre he worked within. Outside of the Stainless Steel Rat books - the Rat is a charming con-man and occasional hero - he's probably best known for writing the novel that Soylent Green was loosely based upon. So yes, the book of Paul's I'd found was a bit of an oddity amongst Harrison's output. It was a game book. You Can Be The Stainless Steel Rat was published in 1985, according to my lovely eBay copy, battered but still with a bit of gloss on the cover. 1985! This means it hit right in the middle of the Choose Your Own Adventure craze, and it cleaves tight to many of the genre's standards, like numbered sections that come with choices at the end. As a reader, you ping back and forth through the book following your instincts, and probably keeping a finger or two marking previous choices for the moments in which your instincts fail. Read more  ( 20 min )
  • Open

    Overwatch 2 could have $45 skins, or instead you could use that money for anything else
    A recently spotted Overwatch 2 survey sure seems to be implying that a single skin could cost as much as $45. As reported by PCGamesN, Twitter user Porterguage recently shared a survey a friend of theirs received that asked about potential prices for skins in the upcoming Overwatch sort-of-sequel. The survey seems to be asking fairly simple questions that are mostly along the lines of 'would you buy this thing for this amount of money,' but it doesn't paint a perfect picture for the sequel. One question asked "How likely would you be to purchase a Mythic Skin at a price of $44.99?" Considering this is essentially the cost of an entire game, that does certainly seem to be quite the price tag for one skin. The survey also asks things like the likelihood of buying a weapon charm for $9.99, or a Legendary Skin at $24.99. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Xbox "encouraged the console wars" for some healthy competition, says former exec
    The console wars hit their peak during the PS3 and Xbox 360 era, and a former Xbox executive has recently explained why the company encouraged it. Those of us who lived through the PS3 and Xbox 360 era of pointlessly arguing which console was better know that discussions could sometimes get unnecessarily heated. But former Xbox executive Peter Moore, who helped oversee the company in that era, recently touched on how he "encouraged the console wars," as a way to elicit some healthy competition in his team (thanks, GameSpot). "We encouraged the console wars, not to create division, but to challenge each other, and when I say each other I mean Microsoft and Sony," said Moore on the Front Office Sports podcast. "If Microsoft hadn't stuck the course after the Xbox, after the red rings of death, gaming would be a poorer place for it, you wouldn't have the competition you have today." Read more  ( 15 min )
    Former Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk devs are working on a first-person, online game set in Japan
    A group of former Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 developers have formed a new studio, and are working on an online ninja game set in feudal Japan. Dark Passenger, the name of the new studio, is led by Jakub Ben and Marcin Michalski, the former having worked as a cinematic artist on The Witcher 3, the latter an animator on Cyberpunk. As reported by PCGamesN, the studio's website describes it as being made up of "gamedev veterans and fresh blood specialists." While the name of the studio's first project hasn't been revealed yet, Dark Passenger has gone into some detail as to what the game will be like. "Our goal is to create highly exciting on-line experiences that are focused both on cooperation and rivalry," Dark Passenger describes the game. Read more  ( 15 min )
    The Nier Automata church mystery wraps up not with a bang, but with a mod
    The great Nier: Automata church mystery of 2022 has finally been solved, and it turns out it really was an intricate mod. Over the last week or so, the Nier community has truly kicked into gear over a mystery surrounding a video clip shared by a member on the game's subreddit showing an area that had never been seen before. This clip surged in popularity when it was shared by video game hacker Lance McDonald, leading many to question how it was possible. The answer? It was all essentially a PR stunt from three modders unveiling some impressive new tools. The reason why it was such a mystery is that Nier's modding community couldn't find any of the files in any version of the game. When Nier Automata producer Yosuke Saito and director Yoko Taro both tweeted about the mod, but didn't clear anything up, some believed it could be some kind of marketing move for the upcoming Switch port (which is probably going to be the best way to play the game's side quests). Read more  ( 15 min )
    Lost Ark's Machinist class arrives this September alongside a new Legion raid
    Lost Ark's next class, Machinist, is coming to the game this September, alongside a range of other content. Earlier this week (July 29), Smilegate outlined the content roadmap across August and September for Lost Ark. Starting things off in August, the Pet Ranch will be joining as a new way to spend some time in the game. "The Pet Ranch is the perfect place to play, grow, and earn rewards with your pet," reads the roadmap. "Recover your pet’s morale, manage pet functions, and earn Jelly Cookies that can be exchanged for valuable rewards!" Also coming in August are some new activities for the ongoing Maharaka festival. In the upcoming update, you'll be tasked with collecting as many leaves from the Maharaka Tree in Maharaka Paradise as you can, which you can then exchange for mounts, animal skins, and more. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Dead by Daylight leak points to Resident Evil's Albert Wesker joining the game
    A fresh batch of Dead by Daylight leaks have dropped, this time seemingly revealing that Resident Evil's Albert Wesker and Ada Wong are coming to the game. These days Dead by Daylight is thought of as the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate of horror, featuring horror collaborations ranging from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Silent Hill. Resident Evil was a very popular one, and it seems like developer Behaviour Interactive has plans to continue working with Capcom, as more characters from the series have leaked online. The leaks come from the reliable DBDLeaks Twitter account, which recently showed off the models and outfits of Albert Wesker, the new killer, and Ada Wong and Rebecca Chambers as playable survivors. They all have their classic looks, which will likely please fans of the characters. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Call of Duty: Warzone's good boy samoyed skin might not be so good as artist alleges plagiarism
    An artist has alleged that an upcoming Call of Duty: Warzone skin has copied an older piece of art of theirs. As spotted by Polygon, Warzone has recently caused a bit of controversy over a skin that has potentially plagiarised the work of artist Sail Lin. Earlier this week (July 27), Raven Software shared the patch notes for season four of the battle royale which showed an upcoming skin of a Samoyed for operator Kim Tae Young. However, Lin took to Twitter to point out just how similar this upcoming skin looks to a piece of their work that they shared to ArtStation in 2019. And they wrote that they believe their work has been plagiarised by Activison, saying that they have reached out to Activision asking for an explanation as to why this happened. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Xenoblade Chronicles 3 helps get your steps in with world that is "five times larger" than last game
    Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is finally out, and it turns out that you're probably going to be doing a lot more walking than in the last one. The term JRPG will generally elicit a response of 'oh, this game is gonna be big' in most people. But big can mean different things, like how long the game actually is, or the amount of side quests there are. For Xenoblade Chronicles 3, that comes in the form of the world being essentially five times bigger than the previous entry, at least according to one of the game's directors, Koh Kojima. Nintendo recently shared an interview with three of the lead developers of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, including Kojima, fellow director Genki Yokota, and writer Tetsuya Takahashi. And in the interview, the three dished out various details about the latest game in the series, as well as the series as a whole. Read more  ( 15 min )
  • Open

    Google försäkrar oss om att Stadia inte kommer stängas ned
    Det finns ingen bokad plats på Googles beryktade kyrkogård åt Stadia.
    Möt Lala – Strays hemliga röstskådis
    Eller ska vi kalla det mjau-skådis?  ( 6 min )
    Valve kommer med goda nyheter till alla Steam-deckare
    Reserverade konsoler kommer kunna levereras tidigare än beräknat.
  • Open

    Russell Coker: Links July 2022
    Darren Hayes wrote an interesting article about his battle with depression and his journey to accepting being gay [1]. Savage Garden had some great songs, Affirmation is relevant to this topic. Rorodi wrote an interesting article about the biggest crypto lending company being a Ponzi scheme [2]. One thing I find particularly noteworthy is how obviously scammy it is, even to the extent of having an ex porn star as an executive! Celsuis is now in the process of going bankrupt, 7 months after that article was published. Quora has an interesting discussion about different type casts in C++ [3]. C style casts shouldn’t be used! MamaMia has an interesting article about “Action Faking” which means procrastination by doing tasks marginally related to the end goal [3]. This can mean include excessi…  ( 14 min )
    Joachim Breitner: The Via Alpina red trail through Slovenia
    This July my girlfriend and I hiked the Slovenian part of the Red Trail of the Via Alpina, from the edge of the Julian Alps to Trieste, and I’d like to share some observations and tips that we might have found useful before our trip. Getting there As we traveled with complete camping gear and wanted to stay in our tent, we avoided the high alpine parts of the trail and started just where the trail came down from the Alps and entered the Karst. A great way to get there is to take the night train from Zurich or Munich towards Ljubljana, get off at Jesenice, have breakfast, take the local train to Podbrdo and you can start your tour at 9:15am. From there you can reach the trail at Pedrovo Brdo within 1½h. Finding the way We did not use any paper maps, and instead relied on the OpenStreetMap d…  ( 3 min )
    Russell Coker: Workstations With ECC RAM
    The last new PC I bought was a Dell PowerEdge T110II in 2013. That model had been out for a while and I got it for under $2000. Since then the CPI has gone up by about 20% so it’s probably about $2000 in today’s money. Currently Dell has a special on the T150 tower server (the latest replacement for the T110II) which has a G6405T CPU that isn’t even twice as fast as the i3-3220 (3746 vs 2219) in the T110II according to passmark.com (AKA cpubenchmark.net). The special price is $2600. I can’t remember the details of my choices when purchasing the T110II but I recall that CPU speed wasn’t a priority and I wanted a cheap reliable server for storage and for light desktop use. So it seems that the current entry model in the Dell T1xx server line is less than twice as fast as fast as it was in 20…  ( 14 min )
  • Open

    The Sunday Papers
    Sundays are for watching yet another true crime documentary. Before you come to an opinion, let's read this week's best writing about games (and game related things). Read more  ( 17 min )
    Genshin Impact developer video introduces update 3.0's Sumeru region
    HoYoverse have released a new video offering more information on Sumeru, the new region coming in Genshin Impact 3.0, the gacha game's next major update. The same video also offered glimpses of six new characters, details of the new enemies players will face in Sumeru, and hints to "ancient secrets buried in the sand." Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Comic for 2022.07.31 - Ouija Board
    New Cyanide and Happiness Comic  ( 5 min )

  • Open

    Mike Hommey: Announcing git-cinnabar 0.5.10
    Git-cinnabar is a git remote helper to interact with mercurial repositories. It allows to clone, pull and push from/to mercurial remote repositories, using git. Get it on github. These release notes are also available on the git-cinnabar wiki. What’s new since 0.5.9? Fixed exceptions during config initialization. Fixed swapped error messages. Fixed correctness issues with bundle chunks with no delta node. This is probably the last 0.5.x release before 0.6.0.  ( 1 min )
    Ian Jackson: chiark’s skip-skip-cross-up-grade
    Two weeks ago I upgraded chiark from Debian jessie i386 to bullseye amd64, after nearly 30 years running Debian i386. This went really quite well, in fact! Background chiark is my “colo” - a server I run, which lives in a data centre in London. It hosts ~200 users with shell accounts, various websites and mailing lists, moderators for a number of USENET newsgroups, and countless other services. chiark’s internal setup is designed to enable my users to do a maximum number of exciting things with a minimum of intervention from me. chiark’s OS install dates to 1993, when I installed Debian 0.93R5, the first version of Debian to advertise the ability to be upgraded without reinstalling. I think that makes it one of the oldest Debian installations in existence. Obviously it’s had several new ha…
  • Open

    The Siege And The Sandfox is a sneaky 2D Metroidvania
    I assumed we must have written about The Siege And The Sandfox before, but nope. It therefore falls to me to tell you about this "2D stealth Metroidvania". Those words alone are enough to get me interested, but there's a trailer below that shows it in action if you need a little more. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Valve say all reserved Steam Decks will ship sooner than expected
    Several people on RPS have managed to secure a Steam Deck since Valve's handheld starting shipping around five months ago. If you're not so lucky, then good news: Valve say they're speeding up production and everyone who has currently ordered one should receive their Steam Deck before the end of the year. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Minecraft mods let you disable Mojang's controversial chat reporting
    Minecraft: Java Edition's latest update introduced a new player reporting tool, which allows players to submit "inappropriate chat messages or dangerous behaviour" for moderators to review. That seems like a good thing on the its face, but many Minecraft players aren't happy that it extends to private servers. Naturally, because this is Minecraft, players have changed what they don't like. There are now mods which strip messages of information tieing them to your player profile. Read more  ( 16 min )
    What are we all playing this weekend?
    To have an extremely timely conversation: how do you feel about this year's games so far? And how do you feel about this question in the first place? I've had a cracking gaming year, and I thinnnk that's down to lots of new games? Maybe? This type of question has always brushed over the fact that people play games for years and start 'old' games all the time, and maybe it's less useful than ever now every other game is a live service. But I've had a good gaming year, and that's what matters. So what are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on! Read more  ( 17 min )
  • Open

    Untitled
    See the horror stories/comics early on my Patreon!  ( 2 min )
    Untitled
    This one’s from Bluechair!  ( 2 min )
  • Open

    What are you playing this weekend?
    The weekend is here. Or is it still Wednesday? Wait. Did you say it’s Saturday? Right. Well, we all get confused sometimes. I suppose it means that the weekend is upon us, then, and it means that, hopefully, you will have plenty of time to play some games. To be honest with you, I haven't slept since Thursday night. Friday evening came around, and it turned into one of those nights where my brain just wouldn't shut off. So, to pass the time until McDonald's opened up for breakfast, I played some games and rocked out. With my earbuds in, of course, so as not to disturb the man of the house. He is grumpier than John Wayne when he wakes up. Plus, I didn't want him killing my gaming and grunge buzz. Read more  ( 16 min )
    The Pathless is coming to Switch and Xbox consoles this winter
    Annapurna Interactive is bringing Giant Squid's mythic adventure game The Pathless to Switch and Xbox consoles this winter. Currently available for PC, PlayStation, and Apple Arcade users, the open-world action-adventure game has you taking control of the Hunter, who must find a way to lift the curse from the world. This curse stems from an island where ancient gods reside. These gods are known as the Tall Ones. When the Hunter arrives on the island, she finds a Spirit Mask that shows the world’s secrets. Here, she meets the Eagle Mother and cleanses her of a curse before the entity known as the Godslayer attacks and appears to have killed the spirit. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Grounded gets a release date along with a final major update
    Obsidian Entertainment has set a release date for Grounded, its backyard survival-adventure game. In June, the studio said the game would see a release in September, and now we know exactly when it will land: September 27. The game is currently in testing with update 0.14, and those who are flighting the game should know the update is notably lighter than previous releases. It is also the final major update for Game Preview before the 1.0 Release in September. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Prime Gaming August offerings include StarCraft: Remastered, Recompile, ScourgeBringer, more
    Amazon is handing out six free tites this month through Prime Gaming. You can claim all six titles starting August 1. The free games for August are StarCraft: Remastered, Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, Beasts of Maravilla Island, Recompile, ScourgeBringer, and Family Mysteries: Poisonous Promises. Read more  ( 15 min )
  • Open

    EVGA rullar ut högoktanigt kolfiberchassi
    Luft, kolfiber och ett sting av lyxbil är huvudingredienserna i EVGA:s påkostade chassi E1.  ( 6 min )
    Helgsnack: Vad spelar du just nu?
    Sommar och sol i all ära, ibland vill man bara tillbringa ledigheten i ett bra spel. Spelar du något särskilt just nu, eller det gamla vanliga?
  • Open

    The Ascent teases new content
    It looks like new content may be on the way to The Ascent. Whilst not formally confirmed by developer Neon Giant - all we got was a cheeky tease on Twitter celebrating the game's first anniversary and a ten-second video - we are told to "gear up for a new contract", leading some to speculate that it may be referencing new, and currently unannounced, DLC. "It's our 1st Year Anniversary!" Neon Giant tweeted. "We're humbled by the support and love we've had since launch. Thank you to our awesome community for sticking with us and for playing our game! We appreciate each and every one of you! Read more  ( 16 min )
    Former Witcher 3 devs form new studio to create a new action game based in feudal Japan
    Former CD Projekt developers have confirmed they're working on a new online action game with "procedural solutions" set in feudal Japan. Led by Jakub Ben and Marcin Michalski, the newly-founded studio Dark Passenger will bring the new first-person multiplayer game to Steam, Epic Games Store, PS5, and Xbox Series X. As yet, no name nor release window have been confirmed. "The troubled time has come in the Land of the Cherry Blossom when nameless conquerors overthrow the ruling shogun and took over his throne," the studio explains. "Everyone who dared to oppose him, not only failed but also, against their will, joined his ranks. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Here's another Genshin Impact Sumeru teaser trailer
    HoYoverse has revealed more about what new region Sumeru has to offer. We've already seen glimpses of Sumeru, but now the developer has pulled back the curtain to give us a peek at the upcoming Sumeru deserts, as well as a load of new characters. Check it all out in the three-minute video below, although it all comes with the usual caveats that the new area is under development and the footage below "is not indicative of the final product: Read more  ( 15 min )
    Summer camp simulator Camp Canyonwood releases in early access next week
    Summer camp simulator Camp Canyonwood will release next week as an early access title. From 4th August, you can step into the shoes of the newest counsellor at Camp Canyonwood, where you'll manage campers, teach them new skills, earn badges, and work to restore the camp by "building and modifying the campground". "Build and manage a struggling summer camp to restore its former glory!" teases the video description. "Each summer, teach new campers activities like fishing, archery and more, while protecting them from dangers natural and supernatural. Keep campers happy to earn funds for improving the campground until it's better than ever!" Read more  ( 15 min )
    Steam Survival Fest kicks off next week
    Steam's next event will be Steam Survival Fest, a celebration of survival games that will include "demos and discounts on games that test your ability to survive the elements". Kicking off on 1st August and running for a week, Valve says that whilst it's "impossible to prepare to survive everything, you can prep for this event by marking your calendars". "August 1st - August 8th, Steam Survival Fest is a Festival of Fortitude celebrating the struggle to beat the elements with discounts and demos on current and upcoming survival games of all kinds," read Steam's promotional blurb. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Assassin's Creed is coming to PUBG Battlegrounds next month
    Assassin's Creed will be stopping by for a visit in PUBG: Battlegrounds later this summer (or Q3, for those of you in the southern hemisphere). The crossover event will bring Assassin's Creed-themed cosmetics, events, and "world elements" from 17th August until 22nd September. There'll be costumes, bag skins, parachute skin, emote, gun charm and spray item up for grabs, as well as Abstergo Industries Infiltrate Haven, themed resources and props on the Haven map where you just may find a hidden Animus machine and Leap of Faith ledges… Read more  ( 16 min )
    Stop overlooking bards - life wouldn't be the same without them
    I was 38 years old when I realised I was a bard. I shouldn't really have been surprised - I was Danny Zuko in my high school production of Grease after all, and then I was Frank n' Furter in stockings and suspenders. But the realisation vexed me, because until that point I'd never had much time for bards. They were, as far as I was concerned - and I can barely bring myself to write it now - padding. Oh the hollowness! Oh the shame! How could I ever have been so empty? Yet, perhaps the fault was not entirely my own. You see, I grew up on bards as interpreted by computer games, and to me, there, they were a forgettable class. They were there only to serve others. In Dark Age of Camelot, which I spent a long time playing, the bard-likes were the speed buff your group needed to get around quickly - that was their purpose. They could do a few other things but none as well as the other classes could. And in World of Warcraft, another game I put a lot of time into, bards weren't a playable class at all. Look across RPGs and it's a similar story. There's no bard class in the Divinity: Original Sin series, and in Dragon Age, the whole series, the bard only crops up as playable in Origins as a rogue subclass. Those series couldn't be more heavily inspired by Dungeons & Dragons and yet, the poor old bard doesn't get a look-in. And it leaves you wondering why. Or, it reinforces a belief somewhere in your head that bards aren't good enough to make the cut. Read more  ( 19 min )
  • Open

    How to Install Latest Vim 9.0 on Ubuntu Based Linux Distributions
    This quick tutorial shows the steps for installing the latest version of Vim on Ubuntu-based Linux distributions.  ( 24 min )
    SpiralLinux: The New Distro Making Debian Easier for Beginners
    SpiralLinux aims to provide a simplified and out-of-the-box Debian experience. Does it succeed in doing so? Read in this review.  ( 27 min )
  • Open

    Grounded har fått ett releasedatum spikat
    Litet blir smått och släpps äntligen den 27:e september  ( 6 min )
    FZ Play ikväll - Äventyr i Syberia: The World Before
    Mirror_Hime tar sig an Syberia-upprättelsen.  ( 6 min )
    GTA VI skulle ha utspelats sig i tre städer med fyra spelbara protagonister
    Rockstars inledande planer för GTA VI var storskaliga.
    Chenso Club bjuder på tjejstryk den 1:a september
    De svenska Powerpuff pinglorna släpps den 1:a september
  • Open

    Leisure Time
    No content preview
  • Open

    Comic for 2022.07.29
    New Cyanide and Happiness Comic  ( 5 min )

  • Open

    Valve will fulfil all current Steam Deck reservations "by the end of the year"
    Following Valve's pledge to more than double its Steam Deck shipments back in June, the company has announced that improvements to its supply chain mean it'll now be able to fulfil all current reservations for the handheld gaming PC "by the end of the year". Steam Deck has, of course, been in massive demand since its unveiling last July, with wait times for reservations rapidly stretching into this year. Unfortunately, supply chain issues forced Valve to delay initial shipments from the end of 2021 into this year, with further rollouts perhaps not as rapid as Valve would have liked. We've had plenty of updates since then - Valve said it would be ramping up production into "the hundreds of thousands" in March, while June saw it announce shipments would more than double in the coming months - and the latest brings great news for those that already have Steam Deck reservations. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Latest Mario Kart 8 DLC backs up earlier leak on platform origins of future tracks
    Shortly after Nintendo released the first wave of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass DLC in March, data miners uncovered what appeared to be a near-complete list of platforms each new wave would be pulling tracks from - and the recent arrival of Wave 2 appears to validate that leak, giving fans a solid foundation for the giddy speculation of classic tracks still to come. Following Wave 1's release, data miner Fishguy6564 shared a video of Mario Kart 8's track selection screen with the Booster Course Pass' ten remaining cups unlocked, complete with the platform origin of each included track. The then-unreleased Wave 2's Turnip Cup, for instance, was shown to contain four tracks taken from Mario Kart Tour, SNES, N64, and DS, while Propeller Cup listed tracks from Tour, GBA, Wii, and a final, yet to be defined course. We now know, following Wave 2's release this week, that those leaked platforms line up perfectly with Mario Kart 8's newly expanded track roster. The final track listing for the Turnip Cup is New York Minute (Mario Kart Tour), Mario Cart Circuit 3 (SNES), Kalimari Desert (N64), and Waluigi Pinball (DS), while the Propeller Cup brings Sydney Sprint (Tour), Snow Land (GBA), Mushroom Gorge (Wii), and Sky-High Sundae (Tour). Notably, the latter is debuting as part of the Booster Pack but coming to Tour later, which might explain its absent tag in the leak. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Early Grand Theft Auto 6 plans reportedly featured four protagonists and three cities
    Following an extensive report into the development of Rockstar's hugely anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6 earlier this week, a few additional claims have surfaced, giving a clearer indication of just how ambitious the project was originally planned to be. Rockstar finally confirmed development on GTA 6 was "well underway" earlier this year, and while official details remain extremely limited, a report by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier on Tuesday shared a number of tantalising details about the project, claiming it'll be set in Miami and will feature the series' first female protagonist as part of a Bonny and Clyde-style duo. Notably, though, Schreier claimed Rockstar's initial plans were much more ambitious, featuring a map that would include "large swaths of North and South America". Axios' Stephen Totilo has since added a little more detail to those claims, citing his own source as saying Rockstar had earlier planned to have four protagonists in GTA 6, with the action unfolding across three cities. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Farewell Neighbours - I'll never forget the way you tackled Ghosts 'n' Goblins
    The final episode of imported Australian TV show, Neighbours airs today on channel 5 here in the UK and, considering I’ve haven’t watched an episode in over 20 years, I’m actually surprised at how sad I am about that fact. Neighbours was a huge part of my childhood, as it was for many other people my age, and it was always something I looked forward to watching after school and then discussing in the playground the following day. I vividly remember things like the death of Daphne after a tragic car accident (I think that might have been the first regular TV character I ever saw die) and how my primary school was abuzz with excitement for an upcoming episode that would feature the wedding of fan favourites Scott and Charlene. One storyline in particular has stuck with me all of these years, though, and that was the time Todd Landers got addicted to the video game Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Reality Labs lost Meta $2.8bn in the last three months
    Meta has released its quarterly financial results, giving insight into its recent decision to increase the price of its Meta Quest 2 headset. Reality Labs, the division of Meta which works on its virtual reality and metaverse products, posted a net $2.8bn loss over the last three months. Revenue during this period saw a 48 percent increase to $452m, which CFO Dave Wehner attributed to sales of Meta Quest 2 during Meta's earnings call with investors, but this was heavily outweighed by the costs and investments Meta is putting into Reality Labs. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is really that good and so, so much more
    Another week ends, meaning it's time for another Weekly, the quick-talking podcast where we recap the week on Eurogamer for you. Remember, premium supporters get episodes on Friday whereas everyone else listens from Monday. Today on Weekly, Martin Robinson dives into Xenoblade Chronicles 3, a game he's just rated Essential and spent the last month playing. What's so good about it? And can I play it if I haven't played the others? We hear it from the horse's mouth. (Note: Martin is not actually a horse.) Christian Donlan, meanwhile, takes us into the world of Rollderdrome, which looks to be another banger from London-based OlliOlli developer Roll7 - how does it do it? This game is a rollerskates shooter where you need to pull off tricks to power your combat. Donlan is very into it. Read more  ( 15 min )
    PT recreated in Halo Infinite's leaked Forge mode
    Halo Infinite's upcoming Forge mode recently leaked, and we are now seeing some interesting recreations of other games made within this mode popping up online. For example, someone has taken inspiration from the truly horrifying PT demo, and remade it using the tools from Forge mode. Spotted by PC Gamer, cosplayer Death Templar shared their PT x Halo hybrid creation on YouTube. As with PT, the player starts in a barren and gloomy room, with only one exit. The difference here, however, is that they have a gun (and I didn't spot a cockroach on the floor). Read more  ( 15 min )
    Xbox "encouraged" console wars to drive competition, former exec says
    Former Xbox executive Peter Moore has said his team "encouraged the console wars" during his Xbox 360-era tenure - as a way to drive competition between Microsoft and Sony. This competition has helped the industry, Moore continued, and saw Microsoft continuing to commit to video games despite the Xbox 360's costly "Red Ring of Death" debacle. "We encouraged the console wars, not to create division, but to challenge each other," Moore said, speaking on the Front Office Sports podcast (thanks, IGN). "And when I say each other I mean Microsoft and Sony. Read more  ( 15 min )
    What Remains of Edith Finch gets free PS5 upgrade, but not if you have the PS Plus version
    Last night, a free upgrade for What Remains of Edith Finch was officially confirmed during Annapurna's recent showcase. This was following rumours the game would be getting Xbox Series X/S and PS5 versions earlier this month. However, if you are one of the many who got their hands on the game when it was included as part of PlayStation Plus, there's bad news. The new upgrade is only available to those who actually purchased the game, rather than getting it via Sony's subscription service. This has been checked and verified by Eurogamer. Read more  ( 15 min )
    PlayStation 5 sales largely flat, as game sales fall
    Sony is still to see its promised accelaration in PlayStation 5 production, the company's latest financial results show. During the three months ending 30th June, Sony shipped 2.4m consoles, only a slight increase on the 2.3m it managed during the same time last year. This contrasts with Sony's forecast for the year, during which it expects to sell 18m consoles compared to the 11.5m it sold in 2021. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Steam is making developers clean up their in-store graphics
    Valve is introducing new rules on what developers can include in their graphical asset capsules. The new rules, which were announced yesterday, will take effect from 1st September. Valve is making these changes to ensure the browsing and shopping process is as "clear and straightforward as possible" for customers. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Resident Evil Village will receive free accessibility update alongside DLC
    Capcom has announced that Resident Evil Village will receive a free update of accessibility options alongside its long-awaited Winters' Expansion DLC and Gold Edition in October. The update will add in: subtitle size, colour and background toggles; speaker name display in story mode; closed captions; and a permanent reticle. It's a small but notable list of options that will hopefully open the modern horror classic to a wider audience. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Delayed Smash Bros. Minecraft Steve and Alex amiibo coming September
    The delayed Smash Bros. amiibo for Minecraft's Steve and Alex now finally have a release date. These blocky little champs will be heading our way on 9th September, Nintendo has revealed, asking us all to "block off [our] calendar" for the occasion. Very good, Nintendo. Very good. These amiibo were originally meant to be released along with Min Min from Arms earlier this year. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Fired Assassin's Creed creative director now at Tencent
    Former Assassin's Creed creative director Ashraf Ismail has returned to the games industry with a new role at Tencent, two years after being fired by Ubisoft. Ismail was let go from Ubisoft in August 2020, two months after stepping down from his role as creative director on Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Multiple women, including some Ismail had met as Assassin's Creed fans, alleged Ismail had contacted them privately and encouraged relationships while concealing the fact he was married. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Elden Ring's pacifist turtle pope wins modded battle royale
    A modder created a battle royale between all the creatures in Elden Ring, and the pacifist turtle pope won. YouTuber BjornTheBear decided to pit the top 21 animal field bosses against one another in a battle to the death on Caelid's battlefield, to determine which was the strongest. This was done over a series of rounds, firstly with each creature at their usual strength and then scaled to match. Read more  ( 15 min )
    What we've been playing
    Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've found ourselves playing over the last few days. This time: dogs, time, and emergent gameplay in the garden. If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive. I know just about every jump scare in the Resident Evil remake, so imagine my surprise when the famous zombie dogs bursting through the east wing windows set piece produced a surprising and undignified squeal from me in Resident Evil: Director’s Cut. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Alicia Vikander no longer Lara Croft, as Tomb Raider movie series sits in limbo
    Things are not looking great for the sequel to 2018's Tomb Raider film adaptation, which starred Alicia Vikander as a young Lara Croft searching for her father on the island of Yamati. A new report from The Wrap has revealed that following its buyout by Amazon, MGM has lost the rights to the Tomb Raider films. The studio reportedly had until May of this year to move ahead with a sequel, but that ship has now sailed. As a result, a "host of Hollywood movie studios" are currently making bids on the rights to the film, with insiders revealing that this has resulted in Alicia Vikander being removed from the project. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Turns out the Nier: Automata secret church was a mod all along
    We have a conclusion! The secret church in Nier: Automata that's been puzzling players all week has been confirmed to be a mod. Earlier today, reddit user sadfutago - behind all the videos so far - posted a link to a Twitch stream that revealed all behind the previously unseen secret church area and its use of Nier: Replicant assets. The stream showed various assets from the game and the secret church area, before admitting all was done through an in-game mod, which will be made available publicly. The VOD wasn't saved but you can still watch clips of the broadcast. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Dicebreaker Recommends: Bloodborne: The Card Game, the best way to unplug from Elden Ring
    Dicebreaker Recommends is a series of monthly board game, RPG and other tabletop recommendations from our friends at our sibling site, Dicebreaker. This month, the team go on the hunt in one of the best video game board games around - Bloodborne: The Card Game. The Soulsborne series has had a mixed showing on the tabletop so far. Arguably the series' most popular entries before the release of Elden Ring earlier this year, the original Dark Souls and cosmic horror Bloodborne, have both seen full-blooded board game and card game adaptations, with Dark Souls also making a recent leap into a D&D-like tabletop RPG. Until Elden Ring inevitably gets its own tabletop outing, the Soulsborne board games are well worth revisiting when you need a moment to stop dying to Malenia and unwind with some good ol' fashioned cardboard for a couple of hours. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Frogwares remaking Sherlock Holmes and Cthulhu crossover The Awakened
    Frogwares, the developer behind last year's investigatory open-world adventure Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One, has announced it's remaking Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened, a Lovecraft-themed crossover the studio originally released back in 2007. The Awakened was Frogwares' third Sherlock Holmes adventure, and the developer's ongoing association with the detective has resulted in an additional six instalments in the series since then, meaning it's got years of experience to build on as it reimagines its 2007 title for modern audiences - not to mention its further dalliances with Lovecraft in 2019's The Sinking City. Frogwares' "full remake and substantial rewrite" of The Awakened will shift the events of the original to serve as a continuation of its young Sherlock arc, started in last year's Chapter One. As such, it'll follow a young Sherlock Holmes, along with his new acquaintance John Watson, on his first big case in London - an adventure that'll span Victorian London, a Swiss psychiactric ward, the New Orleans bayous, and the Scottish Highlands as the fledging detective wrestles with dark, Lovecraft-inspired horrors. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    The Humble Amazing Adventures Bundle has some gems in it
    Need some new games for the weekend? Humble Bundle have put up the Amazing Adventures Bundle and there are a couple of gems in it so let's take a look.  ( 5 min )
    Valve speeds up Steam Deck production some more, all existing reservations this year
    Valve has announced that they've sorted out various issues with their Steam Deck supply chain, so they will get through reservations much faster than expected now.  ( 6 min )
    Yars: Recharged from Atari launches August 23rd
    Yars: Recharged is the latest remake from Atari with developers Adamvision Studios and SneakyBox and it's launching on August 23rd with Native Linux support.  ( 4 min )
    Modern Diablo game engine devilutionX sees new release, how to get it on Steam Deck
    Do you want to play the classic Diablo RPG? Well, not only does GOG have it and the Hellfire expansion but the Native Linux devilutionX game engine can make it even better. Here's how to get it working on Steam Deck (and Linux desktop!).  ( 6 min )
    Proton Experimental brings support for Unravel Two, fixes up Civilization IV
    Valve has released the latest update to Proton Experimental, the special version of Proton you can use that has the latest updates bringing more game compatibility to Linux and Steam Deck.  ( 4 min )
    itch.io has another Creator Day live with 100% going to developers
    The game store itch.io is running another Creator Day, this is where they don't take any cut from developers.  ( 4 min )
    OUTRIDERS officially gets a Playable Steam Deck rating
    Looking for your next RPG-shooter hybrid with online co-op? OUTRIDERS from People Can Fly recently released the WORLDSLAYER expansion and it's now actually Playable on the Steam Deck (and Linux desktop too).  ( 4 min )
  • Open

    John Romero reflects on the making of Wolfenstein 3D, crunch and finding time for creative exploration
    In the age of years-long development cycles, it seems miraculous that Wolfenstein 3D, a game that spawned the modern-day FPS as we know it, was developed by six people in just six months. The story of Wolfenstein 3D’s development makes for a fascinating time capsule of those early days of game development - a milestone in gaming history that underlines just how much the industry has grown over the decades since. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves a bit. The origins of Wolfenstein 3D, a gloriously violent game that paved the way for the even more gloriously violent Doom, can be found in a somewhat more cutesy series of titles: the Commander Keen series. id Software made four of these side-scrolling platformers for MS-DOS in very quick succession between 1990 and 1991, and studio co-founder John Romero tells us that the team was definitely ready for a change. Read more  ( 20 min )
    Bicycle repair could make for a great puzzle game
    After the last stage of my Tour De Jeux gave me a flat tyre on my real bike, I started daydreaming about a bike repair game. A grubby game with fuzzy deductive puzzles as you rule out the many possible causes of similar symptoms. As far as I can find, no such game exists. But I did see two upcoming games with similar names: Bicycle Mechanic Simulator and Bike Mechanic Simulator 2023. Alas, I fear they might be PlayWay-style sims where you just click stuff in order then it all works tickety-boo. That is not the bike repair I know and begrudgingly enjoy. Read more  ( 19 min )
    Thirsty Suitors' thrilling fights and sexy exes are giving me major heart palpitations
    During last year’s Game Awards, Falcon Age developers Outerloop announced Thirsty Suitors, a stylish story-driven RPG about battling your exes and disappointing your parents. Since then, the team have been keeping game details under wraps, but now thanks to the Annapurna Interactive showcase, Outerloop have released a free Steam demo, meaning now we can all have a go at beating the pulp out of our exes - a dream come true. You play as Jala, a young woman who just got booted out of her shared apartment after having a fight with her, now, ex-partner. With nowhere else to go, she’s decided to take the bus back to her hometown of Timber Hills to move back in with her parents (hopefully, temporarily). While she's killing time on the journey, she begins to take a dating personality quiz aptly titled ‘What’s your Thirstsona?’ and it transports her to a colourful dreamlike metaverse where she can skate around and answer deep questions about her love life. Is she really a lost cause in love? Read more  ( 18 min )
    MultiVersus lacks that Nintendo polish, but it's still a slick Smash Bros-like in open beta
    Having given the MultiVersus closed beta a whirl around a month ago, I thought it was a free-to-play Smash Bros-like that came out swinging. And now I've returned to the open beta phase of the multiverse where Bugs Bunny and Taz The Tazmanian Devil are joined by... Lebron James?! Honestly, my thoughts remain largely unchanged – which is a good thing! It's a fun free-to-play fighter that iterates on the Smash formula but can't quite emulate its predecessor's polish. Read more  ( 18 min )
    ADACA is a lightweight angry playmobil S.T.A.L.K.E.R
    There's a set of Unreal assets that Alice of Bees once described as "angry playmobil". I've wanted to quote that for years but had yet to play a game using them that grabbed me enough to warrant an article. Let us be thankful, then, for ADACA, an angry playmobil FPS. It's actually two games, and I'm not sure which to call the main event. I know which one I prefer, because the story mode is a love letter to Half-Life 2, complete with Bane-muffled jackboot cops, endlessly catching up with a Story Guy who's inexplicably ahead of you again, a bionic arm standing in for the gravity gun, and a spooky dark underground section where you're swarmed by creepy mutants. It was good enough to tempt me this week, despite a few minor niggles, but its other half, Zone Patrol, is a Stalker-esque sandbox where it really shines. Read more  ( 15 min )
    RPS Time Capsule: the games worth saving from 2007
    Earlier this month, RPS turned 15 years old, so it only seemed right that this month's Time Capsule entry should be the year of our birth: 2007. Looking back, it was a good year for PC gaming, with the release of Valve's Orange Box alone giving us three new stone-cold classics to enjoy. But what other games from the year of our Horace deserve to be preserved and saved above everything else? Find out which games made the cut below. Read more  ( 26 min )
    Nier: Automata 'secret church' mystery leads to mod tools and memes
    For several weeks, a Nier: Automata player has caused intrigue and excitement by posting mysterious images and videos from an area no one had seen before. Was it a secret area? An unfinished area? A hoax? Viral marketing? A mod? If it was a mod, it was far more complex than any so far. Turns out, that's because a group of fans have secretly been making their own mod tools, and plan to release them soon. In the meantime, I've enjoyed pranksters memeing on the mystery by creating secret churches in other games, including Half-Life 2 and Super Mario 64. Read more  ( 17 min )
  • Open

    Releaselistan 2023
    FZ listar de viktigaste spelsläppen under 2023. Tips, feedback och rättningar mottages tacksamt, se länkar nertill på sidan.
  • Open

    Outer Wilds and What Remains of Edith Finch upgrades on PS5 and Xbox Series X will be free
    Annapurna Interactive announced yesterday during its games showcase upgraded versions of both Outer Wilds and What Remains of Edith Finch are coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Both games will see a 60fps upgrade on the consoles, while Edith Finch will also benefit from 4K on PS5 and Xbox Series X. The Outer Wilds upgrade will be made available on September 15, and it's a free download if you already own the game. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Goat Simulator 3 headbutts its way to a November release
    Coffee Stain Studios has announced a fall release date for Goat Simulator 3. The game is set to arrive on PC exclusively through the Epic Games Store and PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on November 17. Pilgor is the star of the zany sequel, and she's ready to cause all sorts of physics-based mayhem as she explores the sprawling sandbox island of San Angora, featuring plenty of new areas, challenges, and events. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Sony reports small uptick in PS5 sales for Q1, but notes declines in software and gaming revenue
    Sony has reported its Q1 financials for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023. The results find a marginal year-over-year (yoy) increase in PlayStation 5 sales, declines in software unit sales, and a small uptick in digital units sold. For the quarter, Sony reported a 4% yoy increase for PS5. The console shipped 2.4 million units, up from 2.3 million reported during the same quarter in 2021. In all, the console has shipped 21.7 million units worldwide. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Eyes in the Dark interview: How Beetlejuice, psychedelic-trance, and innovation inspired a studio’s first game
    Under the Stairs is a small studio based in Zagreb, Croatia, and on July 14, its first game finally hit Steam. From a small, tight-knit team, Eyes in the Dark: The Curious Case of One Victoria Bloom yielded a 5/5 score in our review for its unique take on, and fresh approach to, the roguelike genre. The roguelike genre isn’t my favourite. While you can catch me ploughing hours beyond hours into various sims that require a tonne of grinding, roguelikes have never been able to keep me hooked for all that long. Eyes in the Dark, however, felt like a breath of fresh air, and almost like it was made for people like me. For people that have just never gelled with the genre. We sat down with Under the Stairs’ director, Vladimir Bogdanić, to talk all about how the studio came together, and how Eyes in the Dark came to fruition. From indie development, inspirations, music, and even what the future holds for Under the Stairs, here’s our insight into the world of Under the Stairs and its quaint game, Eyes in the Dark. Read more  ( 21 min )
    With its latest update, the luxury Game Boy replica Analogue Pocket just got a lot more interesting
    The Analogue Pocket, the gorgeous but expensive modern Game Boy replacement, gets its first major update today – and it’s bringing with it significant new features. The new features added today are headlined by the introduction of ‘openFPGA’, something which is an impressive new string to the Analogue Pocket’s bow – while also being a feature that has ruffled feathers in the wider retro gaming community. The update also includes the much-anticipated 1.1 update to the Pocket’s operating system. Which is a bigger deal that it sounds. Peacockingly described by Analogue as “the future of video game preservation”, openFPGA basically opens up the Analogue Pocket hardware to make it an ecosystem for deploying emulation of other gaming hardware on them device – all using the game-changing FPGA technique. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Ubisoft's best open world isn't in Assassin's Creed or Far Cry, but in Watch Dogs 2
    The original Watch Dogs was an all-time stinker. Released back in 2014, it represented the absolute nadir of Ubisoft open-world design. It was a dour, joyless slog that had no idea how to actually engage with any of the themes or ideas raised by its near future Big Tech Dystopia setting. The protagonist – Aiden Dogs – instantly became the poster boy for bland, uninspired leading men in videogames. The whole thing reeked of a design by committee obligation created solely to hype the potential of the upcoming PS4 and Xbox One, one of those swanky trailers for a launch title that’s destined to be quietly cancelled and forgotten about – but this one, inexplicably, made it to release somehow. That really should have been the end of Watch Dogs, and for many of you it probably was. It’s hard to imagine a game that had fewer expectations than Watch Dogs 2. It seemed like a mistake at first, something Ubisoft had pencilled into their schedule under the assumption that the first game was going to be a smash hit. Lack of corporate oversight coupled with absolutely zero anticipation probably goes some way to explaining how it ended up being one of the greatest open-world videogames ever made. Read more  ( 18 min )
    VG247's The Best Games Ever Podcast – Ep.10: Best game that is really bad
    ”I can’t believe you!” she screamed, having caught him in the act. She’d left work to surprise him. A lovely little act of kindness on what would have otherwise been a completely ordinary day. Just another feature-less weekday blended in with all the rest – the palatable home-made protein smoothie of life. A posh afternoon tea from the local fancy-for-the-area cafe that sits on the park. Sandwiches with pickle that isn’t Branston’s. Cheese that isn’t 40% lighter cheddar. Scones with a hint of cinnamon. Homemade tray bakes the likes of which you usually only see on the TV that are the size of an eight-year-old's hand. How lovely. At least that was the intention. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Bugs Bunny nerf coming to MultiVersus, but game director asserts character will "always be fun"
    "Looks like we've got ourselves a rabbit hater" says Bugs Bunny when you spike him off the bottom of the map and take one life off the opposite team in MultiVersus. And it looks like you could level the same critisism at developer Player First Games. Over on Twitter, Player First Games’ co-founder and MultiVersus’ game director Tony Huynh has confirmed that some nerfs for the iconic cartoon rabbit are in the works – and they'll hit the game after EVO 2022. So when is the Bugs Bunny nerf coming to MultiVersus? EVO kicks off on August 5, and runs until August 7. You can expect the nerf to drop after that date. Read more  ( 16 min )
    New Apex Legends Vantage trailer introduces the young sniper to the battle royale
    A new Apex Legends cinematic trailer has introduced Vantage - a young but talented marksman - to the game. Packing a custom sniper rifle and their pet bat, we see a bit of backstory teased as well as some hints towards what their ability kit could look like in game. As with all character launch trailers, we get a lot of time with Vantage allowing us to further understand the backstory established in the Stories from the Outlands trailer released earlier this week. Cutting between a firefight and a one-to-one with their mum in prison, the trailer (embedded below) gives a nice overview of what the deal with Vantage is. While initially not great in a fight, we see some pretty nifty sniping skills shown off in the trailer too, which give ample room for speculation in regard to her move set. For one, we see her pull down a visor over her right eye, identifying incoming enemies which fits in well with her scout / sniper archetype. We also see her send out her bat mid-combat - here’s hoping they play a bigger part in-game than a cute sidekick! Read more  ( 15 min )
    September is a lot less interesting now that Warhammer 40,000: Darktide has been delayed
    Fatshark has announced another delay for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, the studio's follow-up to Vermintide. The co-op shooter, previously set for launch in September, has been pushed back to November 30. This is a delay of over two-and-a-half months, but that's sadly not the end of the bad news. Fatshark also said that the Xbox Series X/S version will not arrive on the same date with PC, and will instead launch "shortly after." The studio shared a statement on Twitter by co-founder and CEO Martin Wahlund, who said the decision to delay the game was hard, but necessary to ensure the day one experience is the best it can be. More specifically, Wahlund cited game stability and performance as two key areas in need of improving. The extra time will also be used to "mature key systems." Read more  ( 15 min )
  • Open

    Fredagspanelen 261: En ryktesfylld sommar, kvartalsrapporter och lite nygammalt
    Bland hårdvarurykten och återanvänt material snackar Calle välvda skärmar och Anders visar sig ha ett osunt intresse för kvartalsrapporter.
    Intel går med förlust för första gången på flera decennier
    Intels rapport för andra kvartalet 2022 visar på dystra siffror och tapp i processorförsäljning för både konsument- och datacentersegmenten.  ( 7 min )
    Playstation 5 får mjukvarustöd för 1440p
    Sonys senaste beta-uppdatering introducerar nytt stöd för rendering direkt i 1440p och förbättrad kantutjämning vid nedskalning från 4K.  ( 6 min )
    Intel skrotar snabb Optane-lagring för gott
    Trots skiftat fokus till datacenter- och serversegment har Optane och tekniken 3D Xpoint gått rejält back och når nu vägs ände.
  • Open

    Bits from Debian: New Debian Developers and Maintainers (May and June 2022)
    The following contributors got their Debian Developer accounts in the last two months: Geoffroy Berret (kaliko) Arnaud Ferraris (aferraris) The following contributors were added as Debian Maintainers in the last two months: Alec Leanas Christopher Michael Obbard Lance Lin Stefan Kropp Matteo Bini Tino Didriksen Congratulations!  ( 1 min )
    Reproducible Builds (diffoscope): diffoscope 220 released
    The diffoscope maintainers are pleased to announce the release of diffoscope version 220. This version includes the following changes: * Support Haskell 9.x series files and update the test files to match. Thanks to Scott Talbert for the relevant info about the new format. (Closes: reproducible-builds/diffoscope#309) * Fix a regression introduced in diffoscope version 207 where diffoscope would crash if one directory contained a directory that wasn't in the other. Thanks to Alderico Gallo for the report and the testcase. (Closes: reproducible-builds/diffoscope#310) You find out more by visiting the project homepage.
    Matthew Garrett: UEFI rootkits and UEFI secure boot
    Kaspersky describes a UEFI-implant used to attack Windows systems. Based on it appearing to require patching of the system firmware image, they hypothesise that it's propagated by manually dumping the contents of the system flash, modifying it, and then reflashing it back to the board. This probably requires physical access to the board, so it's not especially terrifying - if you're in a situation where someone's sufficiently enthusiastic about targeting you that they're reflashing your computer by hand, it's likely that you're going to have a bad time regardless. But let's think about why this is in the firmware at all. Sophos previously discussed an implant that's sufficiently similar in some technical details that Kaspersky suggest they may be related to some degree. One notable differe…
  • Open

    Behind the Curve
    a comic about shooting your screenshot
  • Open

    7 Docks to Customize Your Linux Desktop
    Docks are one of the several ways you can customize your desktop. Here are some of the best docks that will help you change the default look of your desktop Linux.  ( 26 min )
  • Open

    Do you still hate grape flavor?
    i’ve made my peace with it  ( 2 min )
  • Open

    Proxy Variable
    No content preview  ( 1 min )

  • Open

    Fire Emblem creator's new strategy RPG is out now on Steam
    If you wish modern Fire Emblem was more focused on strategy RPG battles and less focused on perfect teatimes, then Vestaria Saga 2: The Sacred Sword Of Silvanister might be for you. It's a fantasy turn-based strategy game designed by original Fire Emblem creator Shouzou Kaga with a team of volunteers, and it was released on Steam today with a full English translation. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Warhammer 40k: Darktide has been delayed again until November
    Warhammer 40K: Darktide, Fatshark's co-op shooter set in the grim darkness of the far future, has been delayed until a little further into our own future. It was previously aiming to release in September, but in an update on Twitter the developers say Darktide will now launch on November 30th. The upside is that they're going to run technical tests and betas before the full release, and you can sign-up to participate now. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Steam now has support for Nintendo Online classic controllers
    Last year, Nintendo announced an N64 controller for use with the Nintendo Switch, and I announced my intention to use it on PC. Narrator's voice: he didn't. I've less of an excuse not to do it now however, because a Steam client update released yesterday added Steam Input support for "Nintendo Online classic controllers." Read more  ( 16 min )
    Wilmot’s Warehouse devs reveal co-op alien bird adventure Flock
    There were a lot of exciting announcements at today’s Annapurna Interactive showcase but multiplayer co-op flying sim Flock was an instant standout. Weird alien birds, colourful landscapes, pure whimsey, and charm - there was a lot going on. Just watch the trailer below to see for yourself. Read more  ( 16 min )
    This dinosaur survival horror game summons thoughts of a modern Dino Crisis
    First-person indie survival horror The Lost Wild was one of the standout games featured in today’s Annapurna Interactive showcase. It has plenty of that most scary of things: big, toothy dinosaurs. Watch the trailer below to see for yourself, but bring along some anti-lizard flares. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Every game reveal from the Annapurna Interactive Showcase 2022
    Today saw indie publisher Annapurna Interactive’s second showcase, highlighting all the new games that you can expect from them over the course of the next year and beyond. There was some fresh gameplay for Thirsty Suitors and Hindsight, plus a newly revealed game from Wilmot’s Warehouse devs Hollow Ponds. We were treated to a few glimpses at what Kentucky Route Zero team Cardboard Computer and If Found… devs Dreamfeel are working on too. The latter involves cats. Don’t fret if you didn’t catch the Annapurna Interactive stream today, because we’ve got all the info you need to know right here. Read on! Read more  ( 21 min )
    Grounded will hit 1.0 on September 27th with "biggest update ever"
    It was announced during E3 2022 that honey-I-shrunk-the-survival-game Grounded would leave early access and hit version 1.0 this September. An update on Twitter earlier today offered info on what the final early access update, which enters public testing today, has in store for players. It also revealed a more specific release date for 1.0: September 27th. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Ubisoft employee group say none of their demands have been met
    A year ago today, employee group A Better Ubisoft posted an open letter demanding more substantial action from Ubisoft management to tackle alleged abuse within the publisher and its many studios. Today, A Better Ubisoft offered an update in which they say that none of their demands have been met and reiterate what they want. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Get a 2TB SSD for $128 if you're an Amazon Prime member
    SATA SSDs are getting increasingly affordable, with even capacious 2TB models going down in price rapidly as NVMe drives approach parity with the slower SATA drives. This makes it a good time to pick up a SATA drive for desktops or laptops that can't accommodate another M.2 drive, especially for media or game storage where the speed difference between SATA and NVMe is minimal. Today, Teamgroup's imaginatively-named T-Force Vulcan Z drive is down to $128 for a 2TB model, the lowest price we can find for this size at present. Note that to get this price, you do need to be an Amazon Prime member - normal folk you like and me will see a price of $160 instead, alongside a reminder to 'join Prime to save $32 on this item'. You should be able to join Prime under a free trial, order the item and then cancel your Prime status to avoid a charge. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Pick up a Dell G15 RTX 3050 gaming laptop for £440.68
    Dell's G15 is one of the most affordable gaming laptops on the market, thanks to modest specs and Dell's willingness for aggressive discounts, but today we're seeing an RTX 3050 model go for an astoundingly low £441. To get this price, select the Ubuntu Linux 20.04 LTS operating system and use VOUCHERCODES8 at checkout. Linux is a completely free operating system, unlike Windows, so you can knock £50 off the purchase price just by ticking this box - and of course, you're free to install Windows 10 or 11 afterwards. Keys for Windows 7/8/10 work on Windows 11 too, so you probably already have a key lying around - or you can pick up a new one for less than £50 online. The whole process, from using the Windows 11 Media Creation Tool to prepare a USB install drive to reaching the desktop, only takes around 20 to 30 minutes - well worth it! Read more  ( 16 min )
    Goat Simulator 3 screams onto PC on November 17th
    Goats. Why do they exist, and what makes them so loud? Goat Simulator 3 might not answer these deep questions when it bursts onto PC on November 17th, but you can bet it’ll make a lot of noise anyway. Watch the trailer below for a sneaky peek at what's next for the wacky even-toed ungulates. Read more  ( 16 min )
    The Electronic Wireless Show episode 195: the best nice blokes in games special
    Alice is away this week, leaving the lads to their own devices to discuss the best nice blokes in video games. A coincidence? Who can say. What isn't a coincidence is the lateness of this here podcast post, which is a week late. That's my bad, folks, which I think automatically disqualifies me from any kind of 'nice' list from here on out. Ah well. You win some, you lose some. The winners in this week's edition of The Electronic Wireless Show, however, are numerous. Taking that nice engineer chap from Metro Exodus as the absolute pinnacle of 'best nice bloke-ness', Nate and Matthew have framed this week's episode as the four people they'd most like to invite to an afternoon pub trip. Who will make the cut? Listen to find out. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Stray gets the multiplayer treatment with this local co-op mod
    A lot of people love cats, as cyberpunk moggy sim Stray showed us when it launched last week. Now, you can enjoy Stray together with some buddies and/or pals thanks to a new multiplayer mod for the game. This is classic stuff people, because we’re talking splitscreen local co-op. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Exoprimal's airborne T-Rex attacks and unstoppable raptor swarms have slammed straight into my heart
    I’ve been excited to play Exoprimal, Capcom’s upcoming multiplayer dino shooter, ever since it used the phrase “unstoppable raptor horde” in one of its trailers. It is a completely unhinged combination of words that makes me giddy just thinking about them. I’ll often find myself muttering them out loud when I’m unloading the dishwasher or folding laundry. “Unstoppable raptor horde”. It’s like the season finale of language. It’s perfect. Admittedly, prior to the existence of that phrase, I was feeling a little sceptical about Exoprimal’s existence. Not only does Capcom have - let’s say - a less than favourable track record when it comes to multiplayer titles, but as a long-term fan of Dino Crisis I was a bit miffed to see them creating a game featuring prehistoric creatures that wasn’t some kind of lavish remake of my beloved PS1 series. Read more  ( 20 min )
    Sherlock Holmes is taking on Cthulhu again in a remake of 2007’s The Awakened
    The world’s greatest detective who isn’t Batman will once again tangle with the many-tentacled forces of darkness in an upcoming remake of Frogwares’ Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened. It serves as a sequel of sorts to Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One, although they’re calling it a “full remake and substantial rewrite” of the original. There isn’t a trailer just yet, so feel free to anticipate that while you refresh your memory of exactly who Sherlock Holmes is by watching one for Chapter One below. Read more  ( 17 min )
    The Sims 4's High School Years update has added some deeply unfortunate bugs
    The Sims 4 High School Years is launching today, but its release looks set to be overshadowed by a couple of major bugs introduced by its supporting update, Patch 132. The patch came out on Tuesday and, if you've played The Sims 4 since then, you'll have automatically downloaded it unless you've been playing offline. While the patch's release coincides with the High School Years expansion and supports a number of its features, it also added several new elements to the ever-evolving base game. These include long-time fan requests like sexual orientation customisation, body hair options, and the return of a wants and fears system in the style of The Sims 2. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Bear And Breakfast review: a cute but stifling management game
    I really appreciate when games don't hold your hand. They don't waste time insulting your intelligence, they just set you loose in their playground. They let you strike out on your own, figure things out for yourself, and create something valuable with your own two paws. Bear And Breakfast doesn't hold your hand. It wraps you up in a gigantic bear hug, and refuses to let you out of its smothering embrace until long after your enthusiasm has evaporated. Read more  ( 22 min )
    Citizen Sleeper’s first free story DLC is out today
    Flux is the first of cyberpunk thought-poser Citizen Sleeper’s free DLCs, and it launches into the game today. It’s the start of a series of three free episodes coming to the game, and features a new story that should last players around 1 or 2 hours. Catch a glimpse of what to expect when you watch the trailer below. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Life Is Strange's first tie-in novel is a prequel to True Colors, out March 2023
    The first ever Life Is Strange tie-in novel, subtitled Steph's Story, has been announced for next year. The novel will be a prequel to last year's Life Is Strange: True Colors, and will follow recurring character Steph Gingrich and her bandmate-slash-girlfriend Izzie on the tour that will eventually lead them to Haven Springs, the game's setting. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Players say Minecraft: Java Edition update could get them banned from their own servers
    An update to Minecraft: Java Edition is causing frustration among players over the possibility of being kicked out of their own private servers. Minecraft’s 1.19.1 update released yesterday, but its introduction of a player reporting tool has been worrying players since the update went into pre-release in June. While you’re pondering the future of Minecraft, you can watch a really awkwardly timed, tongue-in-cheek video from Mojang below. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Lord Winklebottom Investigates review: a dapper murder mystery with not enough detective work
    Hear me out a minute. Imagine Sherlock Holmes, but instead of a pompous eccentric, he’s a well-mannered, top hat-wearing... giraffe. And in replacement of his partner John Watson, there was instead a plump hippo in a dapper suit who is constantly quaffing tea. No, you've not accidentally picked up the famous detective’s opium huffing habit, these two curious characters are Sherlock and Watson’s animal counterparts in zoological adventure Lord Winklebottom Investigates. The plucky duo, gentleman giraffe Lord Winklebottom and Doctor Frumple the hippo, have been invited to a mysterious island to sit in on a special announcement only to arrive and, by George! There’s been a bleeding murder! It’s a point-and-click affair where you use Talk/Use/Look actions to interact with the environment while also dragging and dropping things from your inventory bar into the world to use them. It’s classic point-and-click through and through. Read more  ( 19 min )
    Stray's cat has now been modded into Doom
    Indie cat adventure Stray has been doing well for itself since it was released last week. Now, it seems other games want to get in on that cute factor. Cue Stray In Doom, which sends Doomguy off for a rest to let a sweet little kitty frag some demons in his stead. Creator Edy Pagaza tweeted footage from the mod earlier this week, and you can now try it for yourself by downloading it from ModDB. You can watch a trailer below. Aww! Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Here's everything shown at the Annapurna Showcase
    Tonight was Annapurna Interactive's second annual showcase, revealing what's to come for the publisher over the next few months. Fresh off the release of viral cat sensation Stray, the showcase featured a deeper look at some previously announced games, some brand new reveals, and insight into the indie devs the publisher is currently working with. Here's everything shown at the Annapurna Showcase. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Warhammer 40,000: Darktide delayed to November on PC, Xbox "shortly after"
    Warhammer 40,000: Darktide - the promising co-op shooter/melee hybrid from Vermintide developer Fatshark - has been delayed again. It's now due for a PC release on 30th November, with the Xbox Series X/S version arriving "shortly after". This will, of course, be the second delay for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, which was announced at the tail-end of 2020 for release the following year. Unfortunately, its development - as with many recent games - was impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, and Fatshark ultimately made the decision to push its launch into 2022 in order to "focus on the level of quality on release, as well as invest in more systems to support Darktide for years to come." March finally brought the news fans had been waiting for, with Darktide receiving a 13th September release date on PC and Xbox Series X/S, but that's now shifted again. Read more  ( 15 min )
    August's Xbox Games with Gold include Saints Row 2 and Monaco
    As is the monthly tradition, August brings a fresh batch of titles for Xbox Games with Gold members, with the service's next four offerings now confirmed to be Saints Row 2, Monaco: What's Mine is Yours, Calico, and ScourgeBringer. Calico, for Xbox One and Series X/S, serves up some wholesome life sim action in which players are tasked with rebuilding the local town's cat cafe - choosing its decor, baking its food, and filling it with an assortment of not necessarily feline creatures to bring in the customers. It'll be available as part of Games with Gold from between 1st and 31st August. ScourgeBringer, Games with Gold's second Xbox One and Series X/S title for the month, is a "fast-paced free-moving roguelite platformer" that sees players, in the role of deadly warrior Kyhra, slashing and shooting their way through a post-apocalyptic world in a bid to save humanity. This one can be downloaded from 16th August to 15th September. Read more  ( 15 min )
    PlayStation reveals DualSense-inspired Backbone One iPhone controller
    Sony has unveiled the new Backbone One PlayStation Edition, an officially licensed iPhone controller created with PS Remote Play in mind. Backbone One PlayStation Edition is identical to the existing Backbone One controller, with one key difference: it eschews the original's black colour scheme in favour of pristine white hues inspired by Sony's DualSense wireless controller. However, other familiar DualSense design elements, including parallel thumbsticks, are not replicated. Sony is promoting the Backbone One PlayStation Edition - which is powered by the connected device - as the perfect companion to its PS Remote Play service, enabling players to stream their games from their PS4 or PS5 consoles to their iPhones using the dedicated App Store app. Read more  ( 14 min )
    Ian catalogues 25 purrfect Easter eggs found in Stray
    The gorgeous cyberpunk world of kitty-simulator Stray may be full of hungry Zurks, but it seems there was still enough room left over for developer BlueTwelve Studio to include a huge amount of Easter eggs. I've cataloged 25 such secrets and references in the video below, ranging from hidden developer messages and musical memes, through to nods to famous books, games and TV shows. One word of warning though, this video does show footage from most areas in the game so do think about paws-ing it until you've completed the game; if you want to avoid spoilers. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Halo Infinite campaign co-op beta tested - and it's superb fun
    Seven months after launch, Halo Infinite continues to evolve with 343 Industries embarking on an extended beta testing period for campaign co-op. This is a crucial feature for a Halo title, desperately missed on the game's debut - and clearly a challenge for the developer. After all, Halo has transitioned from a linear shooter into an open world experience, with a vast degree of freedom for the player - and the notion that up to four players can travel the map doing whatever they please wouldn't really make sense. 343's solutions are constrictive - but they do work - and overall impressions are favourable. First impressions suggest a co-op experience close in nature to those that have gone before - but only because of the nature of the opening brace of campaign chapters. These are entirely linear in nature and 343's strategy in keeping players together is simple: there are certain 'points of no return' - such as passing a door that permanently closes behind you, or kicking off a new cutscene, that reset the positioning for all players. With that in mind, I never felt that the game was artificially keeping us closer together, it felt like a classic Halo co-op experience. Obviously, this changes in the open world simply because it has to, with 343 setting up what it calls an Area of Operation - or AOO. This is roughly defined as a maximum distance of 300 metres between players, with warnings starting to kick in at around the 250m metre mark. Once too far apart, the player furthest away from the next objective is auto-killed, spawning closer to his counterpart. The end result is that freedom is curtailed, but the fireteam is kept together, essentially forcing a focus on the next target. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Goat Simulator sequel gets November release on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC
    Goat Simulator 3 - which, in a fine example of a joke gone wildly out of control, is actually the direct sequel to the original Goat Simulator - has been given a release date and will be launching for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5 on 17th November. The original Goat Simulator, developed by Coffee Stain Studios, launched back in 2014, delivering a daft blast of physics-based nonsense in which players took control of a goat, causing chaos, inflicting damage, and accruing points across an open-world map. Its goat-themed mayhem struck a chord and the game went on to sell "millions" of copies, in turn convincing Coffee Stain that a sequel was required. Goat Simulator 3 (because sequential numbering be damned) was announced earlier this year, promising, among other things, a new sandbox world known as San Angora, full of quests, collectibles, and secrets. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Xenoblade Chronicles will continue beyond 3
    The Xenoblade Chronicles 3 team has assured us that there is still plenty of life left in the series. Speaking as part of an official interview published by Nintendo, Xenoblade developer Genki Yokota was asked whether we would ever see more from Xenoblade Chronicles, given that he had previously called 3 "the culmination of the series". In response, Yokota replied: "Yes it will still go on." In fact, he said he wanted to keep it going for "as long as possible". Read more  ( 15 min )
    What do Rockstar's changes really mean for GTA6 and the games industry?
    This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we're discussing Rockstar, and how its internal improvements may also change its games and the wider games industry. Yesterday's eye-catching report into Rockstar discussed positive changes for employees and suggested this new company outlook could also be reflected in Grand Theft Auto 6, whenever it finally arrives. How important are these changes, and could the industry as a whole benefit? Or should we be calling some of these things out as long overdue, and simply just a bare minimum? Also this week, the Nier: Automata secret church/door - the apparent existence of which has been puzzling fans and the wider internet. Is it a brand new discovery? A very clever mod? Or an incredibly elaborate marketing ploy for a new Nier game by the tight-lipped Yoko Taro? Join Ed Nightingale, Ishraq Subhan, Liv Ngan and myself as we try to explain. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Minecraft responds to fans unhappy with new reporting system
    Minecraft Java Edition's new update is here, and developer Mojang has responded to players who still aren't happy with its Player Reporting system. The new changes were first introduced a month ago in a pre-release of version 1.19.1 and players were already voicing their concerns online. JewelTK, who runs their own Minecraft server, posted a video on Minecraft's subreddit explaining why they were against the change. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Obsidian's Grounded gets a full release this September
    Two years since its launch in early access, Obsidian's garden survival adventure Grounded is finally getting a full release on 27th September. The announcement was made by game director Adam Brennecke, along with news of a final early access update out today which includes a huge revision to the game's armour and upgrade systems. There's also a secret feature called the Homestretch included in the update that will be turned on at a later date. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Amazon has announced its August Games with Prime line-up
    Amazon has announced the free games available as part of its August Games with Prime lineup. They are: StarCraft: Remastered, Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, Beasts of Maravilla Island, Recompile, ScourgeBringer and Family Mysteries: Poisonous Promises. All six titles will be available from 1st August for Prime Gaming members. Read more  ( 15 min )
    A year later, A Better Ubisoft says none of its demands have been met
    A year ago today, the "A Better Ubisoft" group penned an open letter in solidarity with Activision Blizzard workers which also called out Ubisoft's own management for its handling of misconduct scandals in the past. This group has been campaigning for improved working conditions since the company was hit with allegations of a toxic work environment, including numerous accounts of sexual harassment and assault concerning multiple employees at the company. However, the group says, its demands for change have not been met despite Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot vowing he would do "everything in [his] power to ensure that everyone... feels welcomed, respected, and safe". Read more  ( 15 min )
    Life is Strange: True Colors getting novel starring Steph
    Life is Strange is getting its first tie-in prose novel, titled Steph's Story. The book, which is set to launch on 21st March 2023, will chart the life of fan-favourite D&D lover Steph while on the road with her bandmate Izzie. This sounds like the time period which directly precedes last year's True Colors and its Steph-focused DLC chapter Wavelengths, which I enjoyed. That DLC included a few voice clips from Izzie in the form of memories, and hinted at a sad end to Steph's time roadtripping while in a musical duo. Read more  ( 15 min )
    FIFA 23 fans spot T-pose shenanigans in EA's gameplay trailer
    Yesterday, EA had its big gameplay reveal for FIFA 23 which showed off all the fancy current-gen features in action. But some eagle-eyed fans noticed that the polish for the trailer was not all there. Skip to 3:06, and you'll notice a player doing a T-Pose as the narrator discusses how the improvements to the game make it feel more like "real world football." Read more  ( 15 min )
    Asmodee pulls Pandemic from Nintendo eShop, disables online multiplayer in Catan
    Publisher Asmodee Digital is pulling its Pandemic game from the Nintendo eShop, and is disabling online multiplayer in its Switch version of Catan. For the former, an announcement on Twitter stated the game would be pulled from 31st July, although existing owners will not be impacted. "The initial digital game was released 9 years ago, and we no longer feel the current quality and reliability are on par with what Pandemic deserves on digital platforms," reads the statement. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC Wave 2 announced
    Nintendo has detailed the second dollop of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC headed to your Nintendo Switch on 4th August - and there's some proper bangers in the roster. N64 classic Kalimari Desert is included, as is DS masterpiece Waluigi Pinball. Mushroom Gorge from Mario Kart Wii, Snow Land from Mario Kart Advance, plus Mario Circuit 3 from the SNES are also in. These are joined by New York Minute and Sydney Spring from smartphone spin-off Mario Kart Tour, plus the new Sky-High Sundae track - a future Mario Tour addition. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 isn't fun now but that's not the point
    Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 is old, clunky and boring, but at the same time I am entranced by it. This is history I'm playing; the game is 18 years old. There's nothing you can do short of remaking it that's going to make it feel young and exciting again - and Wizards of the Coast tried that last year with Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, and look how that turned out (clue: not well). So all those lumps and bumps I feel while playing it - all those things that have been smoothed by the many waves of action role-playing games since - I don't mind them. In fact, I love them, because they're what revisiting Dark Alliance 2 is all about. Quick history lesson: Dark Alliance was an experiment, really, in bringing Dungeons & Dragons to console. Interplay didn't want a slower, wordy adventure like BioWare's Baldur's Gate but something more suited to a console audience - something faster, something more action-packed. So it enlisted Snowblind Studios (which would go on to make something of a spiritual successor in The Lord of the Rings: War in the North - remember that? We gave it 4/10) to make one. There was reticence but when BG Dark Alliance came out in 2001, it was surprisingly well received, so a sequel was greenlit. This time, however, the beloved Black Isle Studios would make it. This was the house of Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale and Fallout, a bonafide RPG legend, and its involvement added a layer of intrigue and excitement to the game. But Dark Alliance 2 would also be the last game Black Isle would release, with Interplay closing the studio and laying off all of the staff months before release, and cancelling a Dark Alliance 3 in the process. People from Black Isle would go on to form new studio Obsidian Entertainment thereafter. So there's all this history wrapped up in the game. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Zombies make a return to Call of Duty: Warzone in limited-time mode
    Zombies have returned to Call of Duty Warzone in a limited-time mode called Rebirth of the Dead. While we last saw zombies in the now blown-up Verdansk map, this time they will be invading Rebirth Island, which was first introduced with the release of Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War. The new mode, developed by support studio Beenox, has had some significant changes from the previous mode to better fit into Rebirth Island's smaller map design. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Rockstar's Bully gets Unreal Engine 5 fan remake
    Many have hoped Rockstar will one day release a Bully remake or sequel, but currently these hopes seem unlikely to bear fruit. Now, however, a fan has taken matters into their own hands, and remade a trailer for the game in Unreal Engine 5, bringing it into the modern age. YouTube channel TeaserPlays, a "Graphics Designer studio", has released its vision of Bully today (thanks, Dexerto). Read more  ( 15 min )
    You can now use classic Nintendo Switch controllers on Steam
    Steam now supports Nintendo's classic controllers released for the Switch. The patch notes from Valve state: "Added support for Nintendo Online classic controllers". That means you can use your NES, SNES, Mega Drive, or N64 wireless controllers with PC games. If you're looking to grab a controller, though, they're available exclusively on Nintendo's store for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. Read more  ( 14 min )
    The Pokémon Centre returns to London in August
    After three years, the Pokémon Centre pop-up store will be returning to London in August. The last time a pop-up was held in the UK was from 19th October to 15th November back in 2019 at Westfield Shepherd's Bush location. This year, the pop-up will be held alongside the Pokémon World Championships at ExCeL London from 17th to 21st August. The Pokémon World Championships is an invite-only esports event run by The Pokémon Company, but the store will be open for anyone to attend. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Last night's dip into GTA Online's Operation Paper Trail missions was surprisingly chilling
    My wife plays GTA Online a couple of times a week. It's not hard to see why she's stuck with it. Rockstar's endlessly unspooling criminal playground is weird and sometimes creaky, but it's still beautiful - no other company has captured the rosy opioid bloom of LA light like this - and it's still fun. More than anything, it's unpredictable: whenever you go into GTA Online, you always come out with some kind of story. Last night Sarah was busy, so I fired it up alone. I wanted to check out the new GTA Online Criminal Enterprises update. But this is important for what follows: I don't regularly play the game myself. I watch it from the sofa a lot, but I almost never pick up the controller. Criminal Enterprises brings quite a lot to GTA Online as far as I can tell. New weapons and new vehicles are just the start of it. There's also a suite of story missions, though, and this is what I was interested in. Read more  ( 20 min )
    Death is coming quickly in The Sims 4, after update adds ageing glitch
    The death of a sim can be an emotional time. The Grim Reaper shows up with his scythe in hand, the family gathers around to send their loved one off, and a period of mourning descends upon the house. But, if a Sim has lived a good, long life, this can also be a chance for celebration in recognition of time well spent. However, a new glitch was accidentally introduced in a recent update for The Sims 4, and it is fast tracking this whole process. This means that some elderly sims have been dropping dead well before their time. As well as this, children are rapidly becoming teens, teens becoming young adults and so on. Players are reporting this all happening after a visit to create-a-sim (CAS), or during the loading screens. This is even when the game's "Long Lifespan" is enabled. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Flatscreen to VR updates continue to breathe new life into old games
    I've been a bit too busy to do my usual VR Corner posts these past couple of weeks so I thought I'd take this moment of mid-week quiet to let you know about two recent flatscreen to VR updates that have been rocking my world. First up there's a brand new mod for The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe Edition from legendary VR modder Raicuparta. I've already featured a couple of Rai's flatscreen to VR mods on our YouTube channel, including his excellent Firewatch VR mod and his stunning Outer Wilds VR mod. On the offical side of things, Straight Back Games, the developer behind the terrifying team-based survival game Devour has just released an official VR update for the game. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Diablo Immortal passes $100m revenue after just eight weeks
    Blizzard and NetEase's Diablo Immortal has notched up $100m in player spending after two months, almost entirely without the game's Chinese market. That's according to reliable app store analytics firm Sensor Tower, which compared Diablo Immortal's start to that of Pokémon Go (which took just two weeks to rake in $100m) and Fire Emblem Heroes (10 weeks). Diablo Immortal revenues now seem set to accelerate, since the app arrived belatedly in China this week. Read more  ( 15 min )
  • Open

    Backbone-One PlayStation Edition lets you play your PS4 and PS5 games on iPhone using Remote Play
    Backbone and Sony have announced Backbone One PlayStation Edition, an officially licensed mobile controller for iPhone users. Inspired by the design of PS5’s DualSense wireless controller, the two companies worked in collaboration to bring you the Backbone One PlayStation Edition. It even features transparent face buttons like the DualSense, and sports a place to plug your Pulse 3D headset into the accessory. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Calico and Saints Row 2 are just two titles coming to Xbox Games with Gold in August
    Microsoft has announced the August Xbox Games with Gold lineup. The games for August are Calico, ScourgeBringer, Saints Row 2, and Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine. All four games are available to Xbox Live Gold members and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers at no charge. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Stray is a wonderful game with a cat, not a cat game that’s wonderful
    Stray is the first game from French developer, BlueTwelve, and ultimately, it’s an incredibly impressive feat from the team. Not only did Stray claw its way to the top of Steam wishlists the day prior to release, but at the time of writing, it currently sits at the top of Steam’s best of 2022, even surpassing God of War. In the words of The Aristocats, everybody wants to be a cat, or so it seems. However, while Stray’s four-legged feline is at the forefront of the game, I raise the argument that it is not the Outsider that makes Stray wonderful. Jumping around as elegantly as a cat would, and causing as much destruction and chaos as one would too, is just part of the fun here. On the whole, Stray's hook is the story of hope and friendship at the center of the experience – I’d argue it's that which has really brought people together, especially given the tumultuous times that we’re currently living in. I should also warn, if you’re yet to finish Stray, there are spoilers ahead. Of course, pet owners are rejoicing in the fact that there’s a game for them. I’m not even a pet owner (right now), and this game made me itch to get a cat again like never before. However, I don’t think it is the cat themselves that stirs up this feeling within me. Instead, it’s how this cat touches the lives of everyone around them, including players of the game. Read more  ( 18 min )
    This Sims 4 bug is aging characters at an alarming rate
    Following yesterday's free update to The Sims 4, which will now allow players to choose the sexual orientation of their sims, a rather troublesome bug has emerged. The bug appears to be aging players' characters at an alarming rate. If, like me, you can't stand to look after toddlers in The Sims 4, this isn't terrible news. However, the bug is not just affecting toddlers. Simply put, no sim is safe. First reported by PCGamer, it appears that this bug is causing sims to grow from toddlers to seniors in just a matter of minutes. The Sims Community website, however, has reported that the issue is primarily affecting those who are using 'short' and 'long' life spans in the game. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Check out Bully in a whole new light with this impressive Unreal Engine 5 showcase
    If you’re a fan of Bully - the classic school RPG from the good folk at Rockstar - you’re sure to be interested in a new Unreal Engine 5 showcase shining a new light on the classic title. Created and presented on YouTube by Teaserplay, we get plenty of character, environment, and conversational shots in the new engine. The video is currently sitting at a comfy 246,000 views, with numerous fans of the series eager to see the game recreated in modern technology. There are some criticisms of the faces - especially Jimmy’s mug - but this balances out with some genuinely impressive buildings and exterior locations. This video isn’t a sudden announcement of a full on fan-remake, but instead a concept trailer showcasing what a full on modern remake could look like. According to the description of the video: “We tried to use all the power and features of Unreal Engine 5 to recreate this such as Lumen, Nanite, Ray Tracing and Metahuman to create Jimmy Hopkins and Dr Crabblesnitch's face”. Read more  ( 15 min )
    PS Plus Premium isn't the disaster it's claimed to be – in some ways it's better than Game Pass
    This November, the PS5 will celebrate its second birthday. Despite some first party bangers – Returnal, I'm looking at you – so far, Sony’s machine’s got off to less of a running start and more of an agonising crawl. It’s a problem that Microsoft’s new boxes aren’t immune to either, but cunningly, Xbox has pulled a rabbit out of a hat. The name of its new floppy-eared friend? Game Pass. While Microsoft has been quietly collecting studios and Sony releases a steady stream of exclusives, by Year Two, there’s one clear winner of this console generation: Game Pass. Boasting over 25 million subscribers and winning over the hearts and minds of value-loving gamers, the slow-build service has been genuinely disruptive to the video games industry. It’s seen this console generation defined less by ‘next gen’ release and more by a shiny new way to consume them. WIth fan twitter accounts happily parroting Xbox’s ‘best deal in gaming’ and fanboyism now gleefully extending to subscription services, it seemed the battle lines for this generation have already been drawn. It was inevitable then, that Sony would throw itself into the subscription service skirmish. It's chosen battle-ready champion? An all-new, three-tiered PS Plus offering. Rolling out worldwide last month, in these early days, it’s hardly been the valiant comeback Sony hoped for. Following months of leaked information, PS Plus’s 2.0 ‘grand’ reveal was fired out with… well, less of a bang and more an inaudible whimper. Light on PS1 and PS2 classics and looking from a distance like Poundland Game Pass, Sony’s initial offering reeked of a quick money grab. A poorly copied scrap of ‘subscription service 101’ homework. Yet, it turns out, the reality is far from the disaster it seems. Read more  ( 19 min )
    Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass Wave 2 will come hurtling around the corner very soon
    Eight additional courses are making their way to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with Wave 2 of the Booster Course Pass. Releasing on August 4, one of the entries is the Sky-High Sundae course which makes its first appearance in the Mario Kart series. There's also New York Minute from the Mario Kart Tour mobile game, and you can race around a giant pinball machine in the DS Waluigi Pinball course. The tracks included in Wave 2 are part of the Turnip Cup and the Propeller Cup. Each cup features fast and familiar courses pulled from the Mario Kart series across SNES, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64, Nintendo DS, Wii, and Mario Kart Tour games. You can play the courses locally or online. Read more  ( 16 min )
    As Nintendo prepares to shut down the 3DS eShop, I have one selfish plea: Capcom, where’s Ace Attorney Trilogy 2?
    Earlier this month, Nintendo released a reminder of something that feels as inevitable as the heat death of the universe – the closure of the digital store fronts that power the 3DS and Wii U, meaning many games available via those download services will enter a state of not-for-sale limbo, risking becoming another piece of abandonware. This isn’t exactly a surprise, as Nintendo has a history of outright shutting down the servers and infrastructure for its outdated hardware. The Wii’s digital store was discontinued 3 years ago now. It still sucks, of course – but it’s just a sort of fact of life. So, the facts right now are that as of the end of August, you’ll no longer be able to add funds to Wii U and 3DS eShop accounts. From next March, you’ll no longer be able to make purchases – though you’ll remain able to redownload anything you already own “for the foreseeable future”. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Dead by Daylight developer, Behaviour Interactive, announces its first games showcase
    The developer behind Dead by Daylight, Behaviour Interactive, has revealed that it will be hosting its first ever games showcase in early August, 2022. The event, named Behaviour Beyond, will happen on the eve of the developer's 30th anniversary, and is said to boast a bunch of exciting announcements for Dead by Daylight, but also some key announcements for new games and universes. You'll be able to tune into the showcase via the Behaviour Interactive Twitch and YouTube channels on August 3, from 1:30 PM EDT / 6:30 PM BST. If you're a fan of Dead by Daylight, which is one of our best horror games of all time, this will no doubt be pretty thrilling news. After the success of the first Resident Evil chapter added to the game, we now know that we're in for a second. However, little details have been shared about this, and this showcase certainly looks to clear up some questions that fans have. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Marvel’s Midnight Suns trailer focuses on the mystical skills of Doctor Strange
    2K Games has released a new trailer for Marvel’s Midnight Suns, and it stars Doctor Strange. In the video, you not only get a quick look at the Sorcerer Supreme but his spectral powers as well. A tactical RPG set in the Marvel Universe, in Midnight Suns, you will fight the demonic forces of the underworld while teamed up and living with various heroes such as X-Men, Avengers, Runaways, and more. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Like it or not, Diablo Immortal has raked in $100 million in 8 weeks
    Diablo Immortal is proof that there's money to be made in hell. Though NetEase and Blizzard are insistent that the "vast majority" of players aren't spending money in the game, it appears the ones that are have some deep pockets indeed. Though fans have been particularly vocal about the number of microtransactions and the cumulative cost of fully upgrading a character, those that don't mind the expense are bank-rolling the game to some degree. New data from mobile analytics company Sensor Tower notes that Diablo Immortal's first eight weeks on the (digital) shelves has seen the game take a massive $100 million in player money. That sounds like a lot – and, indeed it is! – but when it comes to mobile games, it still pales in comparison to Pokemon Go, which hit the $100m mark in just 14 days. The less popular, but still notable, Fire Emblem Heroes took 10 weeks to get to that benchmark (thanks, Eurogamer). Read more  ( 16 min )
    PS5 finally gets 1440p support in new beta update, but it's missing a key feature
    Sony has shared some news about the next major PlayStation 5 firmware update, which enters beta today. Participants in the US, Canada, UK, Japan, Germany, and France will receive an email today when the download becomes available. Sony didn't say when the rest of us will get their hands on the new update, other than "later this year." This is one of the bigger firmware updates for PS5. The headline feature is support for 1440p resolutions, something that's invaluable for players using the console on a PC monitor - where that resolution is more popular. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Just King blends Vampire Survivors action with Slay the Spire progression
    Just King is going to be my next game to be fixated on. It's ridiculously cheap and offers up gameplay where you keep wanting to come back for more.  ( 5 min )
    You can now play DOOM as the Cat from Stray
    Yes this is a real thing, DOOM modders will quite literally do anything and I'm here loving it. You can now play DOOM as the cat from Stray.  ( 5 min )
    Wine manager app Bottles makes rolling back configs real easy
    Bottles is the free and open source app that allows you to easily manage Wine, the Windows compatibility layer on Steam Deck and Linux. Another new version is live, with a whole new versioning system to help you roll back changes.  ( 11 min )
    GE-Proton 7-27 has the Halo Infinite campaign and videos working on Steam Deck & Linux
    Recently I showed off Halo Infinite running quite nicely online on the Steam Deck and now GE-Proton 7-27 that just went up makes the process even smoother and the campaign and videos now work too.  ( 7 min )
    Detective adventure Lord Winklebottom Investigates is out now
    Cave Monsters has released their detective adventure game Lord Winklebottom Investigates with Native Linux support.  ( 4 min )
    Voodoo Detective is a Monkey Island inspired point-and-click adventure
    One we apparently missed that arrived with Native Linux support back in May, Voodoo Detective is a Monkey Island inspired point-and-click adventure from Short Sleeve Studio.  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Asus tar sikte på enhänt med Zenfone 9
    Ett förhållandevis kompakt format kombineras med Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 och särskilda anpassningar för den som inte vill använda mer än en hand i taget.
    Quiz: Citat om teknik
    Citat fungerar både som inspirationskällor och såklart för att påminna personer om allt dumt de sagt. Det är dags att se hur bra koll vi har på vem som hävt ur sig vad.
    Spotify går med över två miljarder i förlust
    Spotifys andra kvartalsrapport visar på betydande förlust. Samtidigt växer användarbasen över förväntan och kassaflödet är positivt.
    Hardware Canucks sätter fläktbestyckat DDR5 på prov
    Geils aktivt kylda DDR5-minnen med dubbla minifläktar är en frisk fläkt estetiskt, men faller på konstruktion som inte nyttjar dess fulla potential.
    AMD bekräftar fyra processorer i Ryzen 7000-serien
    I sin officiella databas listade bolaget under kort tid fyra processorer, däribland Ryzen 7 7700X och Ryzen 5 7600X.
  • Open

    Morose-Tinted Glasses
    No content preview
  • Open

    Untitled
    No content preview  ( 2 min )
  • Open

    Dominique Dumont: How I investigated connection hogs on Kubernetes
    Hi My name is Dominhique Dumont, DevOps freelance in Grenoble, France. My goal is to share my experience regarding a production issue that occurred last week where my client complained that the applications was very slow and sometime showed 5xx errors. The production service is hosted on a Kubernetes cluster on Azure and use a MongoDB on ScaleGrid. I reproduced the issue on my side and found that the API calls were randomly failing due to timeouts on server side. The server logs were showing some MongoDB disconnections and reconnections and some time-out on MongoDB connections, but did not give any clue on why some connections to MongoDB server were failing. Since there was not clue in the cluster logs, I looked at ScaleGrid monitoring. There was about 2500 connections on MongoDB: That se…  ( 12 min )
  • Open

    Retbleed Impact, Overall CPU Security Mitigation Cost For Intel Xeon E3 v5 Skylake
    Since the disclosure of Retbleed earlier this month as the newest CPU security vulnerability around speculative execution, I've posted some Intel/AMD benchmarks looking at the mitigation cost for the affected older generations of processors. Last week I also looked at the accumulated CPU mitigation cost on AMD Zen 1. Today is a similar comparison over on the Intel Xeon E3 v5 "Skylake" side with looking at the cost of just the Retbleed mitigations and then the overall CPU mitigation cost when toggling all of the various vulnerabilities with the "mitigations=off" flag.  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    LibreOffice vs OpenOffice: All You Need to Know?
    A comparison of the two of the most popular open source office software that are also similar in many respects. This article explains the similarities and differences between LibreOffice and OpenOffice.  ( 29 min )

  • Open

    Vincent Bernat: ClickHouse SF Bay Area Meetup: Akvorado
    Here are the slides I presented for a ClickHouse SF Bay Area Meetup in July 2022, hosted by Altinity. They are about Akvorado, a network flow collector and visualizer, and notably on how it relies on ClickHouse, a column-oriented database. Slides in PDF format The meetup was recorded and available on YouTube. Here is the part relevant to my presentation, with subtitles:1 I got a few questions about how to get information from the higher layers, like HTTP. As my use case for Akvorado was at the network edge, my answers were mostly negative. However, as sFlow is extensible, when collecting flows from Linux servers instead, you could embed additional data and they could be exported as well. I also got a question about doing aggregation in a single table. ClickHouse can aggregate automatically data using TTL. My answer for not doing that is partial. There is another reason: the retention periods of the various tables may overlap. For example, the main table keeps data for 15 days, but even in these 15 days, if I do a query on a 12-hour window, it is faster to use the flows_1m0s aggregated table, unless I request something about ports and IP addresses. To generate the subtitles, I have used Amazon Transcribe, the speech-to-text solution from Amazon AWS. Unfortunately, there is no en-FR language available, which would have been useful for my terrible accent. While the subtitles were 100% accurate when the host, Robert Hodge from Altinity, was speaking, the success rate on my talk was quite lower. I had to rewrite almost all sentences. However, using speech-to-text is still useful to get the timings, as it is also something requiring a lot of work to do manually. ↩︎  ( 2 min )
  • Open

    Steam Deck Beta gets Firefox as Flatpak, mentions "future controller hardware revisions"
    Valve has released a new SteamOS Beta update for Steam Deck and it finally sorts out the Firefox situation, along with hints of hardware changes, or a new controller coming? Plus a Steam Deck Client Beta update too!  ( 6 min )
    The Excavation of Hob's Barrow has some real fancy pixel-art
    Gimme! The Excavation of Hob's Barrow is an upcoming adventure from developer Cloak and Dagger Games with publishing from Wadjet Eye Games and it instantly grabbed my attention.  ( 4 min )
    September will bring the melee focused Steam Bash Bash event
    Valve has announced that the Steam Bash Bash event will be going live between September 19 and September 26.  ( 4 min )
    Hobo Cat Adventures features dark humour and souls-like combat - now on Linux
    Here's one missed from earlier in July, the colourful 3D platformer Hobo Cat Adventures gained Native Linux support.  ( 5 min )
    Cancelled space sim Limit Theory opens up the source code
    Limit Theory was a once very promising looking space sim that was funded on Kickstarter. Sadly the developer cancelled it but now as promised they've opened up the source code.  ( 6 min )
    Terminal-based game inspired by Pokémon gets a big upgrade with audio
    Pokete is a game we introduced you too recently that's inspired by Pokémon but you play it in a terminal. A new release is out bringing some nice advancements.  ( 5 min )
    VRChat adds Easy Anti-Cheat, community not happy but Linux and Steam Deck work fine
    Despite the name, VRChat is not a VR-only space and it's incredibly popular. Recently though, they added in Easy Anti-Cheat and the community is currently very unhappy with it.  ( 7 min )
  • Open

    Pick up 32GB of TeamGroup T-Force Delta DDR5 RAM for $208 after a double discount
    TeamGroup's excellent T-Force Delta RGB RAM has been heavily discounted on Amazon in the US, with a dual-channel 32GB kit dropping from $260 to $209 after a double discount. The RAM is currently being sold for $234 after a 10% reduction to its list price, but you can also apply a further 10% reduction at the checkout to bring the RAM down to the lowest price we've ever seen for this spec. Note that to get this price, you need to tick the "10% coupon" checkbox on the product page. You'll see the reduced price at the final stage of the checkout! Read more  ( 16 min )
    Three high-speed 1TB NVMe SSDs are going cheap in the UK
    Today we have a special edition of 'Will writes up a deals post for RPS', as three of my favourite 1TB NVMe SSDs (yes, I'm this nerdy) are on sale here in the UK. We've got two Samsung drives here, the PCIe 3.0 Samsung 980 and the PCIe 4.0 Samsung 980 Pro, as well as another strong PCIe 4.0 option, the Crucial P5 Plus. All three offer great value for money at their reduced price point, so let's cover each in turn! Read more  ( 17 min )
    Elden Ring, Monster Hunter, and the end of my affair with health bars
    Think FromSoftware and your mind instantly flits to a skeleton doing a forward roll doesn't it? Or an electrified goat that rolls. Or a bald man cackling as he kicks you down a hole. And, of course, the tricky boss fights with deformed dragons and Fell Omens from the West Country. Since I've been playing Monster Hunter Rise, which is largely a succession of ever escalating boss fights with big lizards, I've begun comparing these scuffles with Elden Ring's boss battles. And I reckon much of their differences come down to the simple health bar, or lack of it. Read more  ( 19 min )
    The Rally Point: The Battle For Polytopia is this summer's low-intensity strategy game
    Strategy games are the go-to option when you're looking for something to really get your brain working. But they can seem unreachable when your synapses are being melted from without rather than through overuse. Happily, we found an excellent solution last summer, and being a wily fox, I had a plan ready for this year. 2022's now-traditional Low-Intensity Strategy Game For When Burny Light Make Think Hard is, of course, The Battle For Polytopia. Read more  ( 20 min )
    Dave Gilbert on branching out to gothic horror, and why voice-acting is his "favourite thing in the world"
    When I sat down to talk to Wadjet Eye founder Dave Gilbert last week, he was in the middle of trying to sum up The Excavation Of Hob's Barrow, a new point and click adventure from Cloak And Dagger Games that his studio will be publishing later this year. "Usually, by the time a game comes out, I've compressed it to one sexy sound bite. I haven't done that with Hob's Barrow yet," he says. "Basically, Victorian gothic horror story. That's the best way to describe it." Originally announced as Incantamentum (Gilbert jokes that one of the reasons behind the name change is because he could never pronounce "Incantamentum" correctly), Wadjet Eye got involved after Gilbert played the Steam demo last year and emailed the developer. "I said, 'Hey, I played the demo. I really liked it. Please tell me you're going to be adding voice acting to this because it's screaming for it'," Gilbert tells me. "And he said, 'Well, we will if we can find a publisher who'll do it for us.'" So now Wadjet Eye are publishing, and Gilbert is overseeing the voice recording. Read more  ( 20 min )
    Jurassic World began life as a sequel to infamous PC game Jurassic Park: Trespasser, Xbox creator reveals
    There are some things in this world that just take you completely by surprise. Drop bears, for example. It was a total shock, though, when co-father of the OG Xbox Seamus Blackley revealed earlier this week that the Jurassic World series originally started life as a sequel to 1998's terribly received PC-exclusive Jurassic Park: Trespasser. You can watch the original pitch trailer for Jurassic World that Blackley created below. Read more  ( 17 min )
    GTA 6 report says its first female protagonist will be part of a Bonnie and Clyde double-act
    More information about Rockstar’s next Grand Theft Auto game has slipped out of a new report from Bloomberg. Staff at the company spoke about how the cultural changes that have been taking place since former head Dan Houser’s infamous 100-hour working week comments in 2018 have affected the game’s development, with sources saying GTA 6 will apparently have a playable female protagonist for the first time in the series' history. It sounds like we might have quite some time to wait to play it though, so watch the trailer for GTA Online’s new Criminal Enterprises update below to sate your appetite for misdemeanours. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Disney Dreamlight Valley looks like Animal Crossing meets Mickey Mouse
    When licensed life sim Disney Dreamlight Valley was revealed in June, I cringed while simultaneously letting out a little “ooh” of excitement. See, Animal Crossing and animated Disney movies have both long been big deals in the Wheeler household, and the new game seemed to be riffing heavily on the former. A fresh gameplay trailer, watchable below, only cements that further. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Call Of Duty: Warzone's limited-time Rebirth Of The Dead mode lets you become a zombie, arrives today
    If you were after an unhealthy dose of the undead with your Call Of Duty: Warzone, today's the time to get stuck in as the Rebirth Of The Dead limited-time mode will arrive alongside Warzone's big Season 4 Reloaded event. Developed by Beenox, it's a revamped version of Zombie Royale with some tweaks to make it even more chaotic. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic remake delayed indefinitely
    The Force isn’t strong with the remake of classic RPG Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic, which has been delayed indefinitely following a badly received demo shown internally at the end of June. Bloomberg reports that the game’s design director and art director were subsequently fired from developers Aspyr Media during the week after the demo was finalised. Sources from Aspyr told Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier that the game had been intended for a 2022 release, but that 2025 was more "realistic". Read more  ( 16 min )
    Urbek City Builder demands efficient use of natural resources, not money
    Urbek City Builder looks like a traditional entry to the genre: you place buildings, cars and little people begin to scurry about, and you gradually expand your urban sprawl. The twist is that there's no money fuelling your construction. Instead, your city flourishes or not based on your ability to fulfil each building's resource requirements, which quickly turns progress into more of a puzzle than a management game. It's out on Steam now, and you can find a trailer of its pretty voxel world below. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    GTA 6 will star a female protagonist who is part of a bank-robbing duo
    A new report states GTA 6 will feature a female protagonist in the main campaign. This is according to sources speaking to Bloomberg, the female protagonist is Latina and part of a ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ bank-robbing duo. It also states in the report that instead of taking place in one city, the game will start the player off in a fictional version of Miami with more cities and missions added regularly. Players can expect the game’s world to be large, with more interior areas available than in previous games. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Ico is awkward, unsettling, and weird – but it's still an essential PS Plus game everyone needs to play
    You know those beloved novels you always mean to read, but never quite get around to? Ico is my gaming equivalent. Released in 2001 for Sony’s bulky behemoth, this PS2 classic is heralded as one of the medium’s greatest achievements. If that wasn’t enough of an excuse for a games journalist to just fucking play it already, it’s also part of a trilogy that I utterly adore. Falling head over heels for creator Fumito Ueda’s feverishly anticipated 2016 epic The Last Guardian (remember thinking this would never release?) and most gamers’ first encounter with Ueda (seminal goliath slayer, Shadow Of The Colossus), Ico’s alluring box art has always beckoned. Now, with the PS2 classic available to stream via PS Plus Extra, it was finally time to see what the fuss is all about. Entirely predictably then, Ico hooks me immediately. When it comes to the navel-gazing ‘games as art’ discourse, there’s a reason that Ico is always highlighted as a shining example. Light on narrative and heavy on ambience, Fumito Ueda’s breakthrough project is a majestic mood piece – a universally relatable adventure that largely avoids cutscenes and, instead, relies on its setting to tell its tale. And what a setting. There’s a wonderfully surrealist quality to Ueda’s debut that immediately recalls the ill-fitting, ethereal nature of childhood dreams. Thanks to the PS3’s notoriously difficult-to-emulate cell processor, Ico is only available to stream via Sony’s rebranded PS Now service, giving it an unintentionally murky look. Still, it’s hard to care when the core art style is this good. At times, Ico’s odd camera angles and surrealist pacing make the whole thing feel like a playable Renaissance painting; amping up that dreamlike feel which defies Ico’s dated visuals, oozing a quietly entrancing sense of mystique and dread. Read more  ( 19 min )
    MultiVersus soars to over 100k players on Steam following open beta launch
    MultiVersus seems to be popping off in a major way ever since it went live in open beta this week. According to SteamDB, an external tool that tracks the concurrent and peak player counts of games that use the platform, the game has shot well over 100,000 concurrent PC players in the last 24 hours. This makes it, by far, the most popular fighting game release for the platform. Checking now, the game is showing no sign of slowing, with it nearing a whopping 150,000 peak! It’s safe to say that the combination of the game’s free-to-play model, as well as a colourful cast of popular Warner Bros characters, has charmed the gaming community at this moment in time. It’s also worth noting that the developers - Player First Games - have some significant content updates planned in order to maintain this momentum. Many will know that NBA star Lebron James was added to the cast upon the open beta release, but Rick & Morty are also set to join the roster during the upcoming season one period. Time will tell if these characters paired with the experience of actually playing the game will keep numbers high in the coming weeks. Read more  ( 16 min )
    FIFA 23 takes babysteps forward with Hypermotion2 and sprint styles, PC version upgraded to next-gen engine
    FIFA 23 will make major improvements to the series’ Hypermotion movement system, EA has said. On next-gen console versions, which now includes PC, these advances will be powered by new motion capture technology and machine learning animations. Dubbed Hypermotion2 by EA Sports, players in FIFA 23 will have a greater freedom of motion than in previous years and move less robotically in response to dynamic conditions. These movements draw on motion capture data from more real-life games than previously, which are then fed into a machine learning algorithm that can generate movement animations in real time in response to what’s happening on the pitch in your match. Read more  ( 17 min )
    MultiVersus has what it takes to be the best free-to-play game on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC
    The free-to-play game scene is booming right now. There’s Apex Legends, Final Fantasy 14, Fortnite, Destiny 2, Warframe – and so, so many more besides. But getting to the front of the pack is hard: there’s an ever-increasing number of competitors, and what was once the domain of experimental up-and-comers is now the killing floor for triple-A developers. Yes, indies can make a name for themselves in the space, but the established studios rule the roost now: it’s hard to be a small fish in a big pond when sharks like Epic, EA, Ubisoft and Bungie are milling about. The newest addition to this proverbial feeding frenzy? Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment. Teaming up with relatively unknown studio Player First Games (seriously, the outfit doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page at the time of writing), Warner Bros. has wrestled into the free-to-play market in a meaningful way with MultiVersus – a free-to-play crossover fighting game that has pilfered characters from across the expansive Warner Bros. Discovery catalog. If you don’t know the game, it’s like Smash Bros. Except it’s not. Like Smash, you can select a character from any one of some myriad properties. Instead of Nintendo, though, the roster is picked and chosen from licenses from Warner Bros., DC Comics, HBO, Turner Entertainment, and Cartoon Network. So, you can have characters from Scooby-Doo teabagging Steven Universe, or maybe you’ll see Harley Quinn smash a Game of Thrones character around the face. There’s also an original character, Reindog (half reindeer, half dog), who may quietly be the best character in the game. But don’t tell anyone. Read more  ( 18 min )
    PS Plus Essential lineup for August confirmed, and it's pretty good
    It's that time of the month again, and the roster of free games coming to PS Plus in August once again leaked before Sony could make the announcement. As per usual, Dealabs leaked the lineup, after having posted the correct lineup of free titles for PS Plus ahead of Sony's official announcement each month. According to Dealabs' leak, the roster of games is set to include Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 Remake for both PS4 and PS5, with Little Nightmares arriving on PS4 only. And as usual, they were right: Sony has confirmed all three titles are coming to the service in August. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Stardew Valley inspired magical sim, Wylde Flowers, arrives this autumn
    Wylde Flowers looks to be the magical mixture of farming sim, Stardew Valley, and the sort of spellcasting you'd expect to see Pelican Town's Wizard pulling off (spoiler: his spells aren't half as cool). The magical sim was previously exclusive to Apple Arcade, but it has now been announced that the indie will be coming to PC via Steam and Nintendo Switch on September 20, 2022. The charming indie has you step into the shoes of Tara, as she goes on a heart-warming journey to become a witch and restore her grandmother's farm simultaneously. By day, you'll be tilling soil and tending to your farm, but by night, you'll be bonding with your coven and practicing spells. If you wish to live out a whimsical cottagecore lifestyle, this could be the game for you. Read more  ( 15 min )
    I can't decide if Indiana Jones is loving or hating the world of Elden Ring
    The best mash-ups are those you don't expect, and it's even better when they work. One such candidate imagines what would happen if legendary adventurer Indiana Jones somehow made it into the world of Elden Ring, with all of its undiscovered mysteries and dangers around every corner. But we don't have to imagine this, because someone went ahead and made this crossover. YouTuber Eli_handle_b․wav, whom you may know from their excellent Austin Powers in Mass Effect two-parter, has ventured into the world of FromSoftware's latest, and brought Indiana Jones along. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Atlus knows how badly you want to see Persona 2 and Persona 3 remakes
    How good would it be to see your mute Persona 3 protagonist shoot themself in the head with a special summoning gun, and have a fully powered-up Orpheus Telos appear in a blaze of unstoppable vengence? Maybe you'd prefer to see Persona 2: Innocent Sin or Persona 2: Eternal Punishment's protagonists once again shunted into the spotlight instead – after all, other than a release on the PS Vita a few years back, many gamers haven't had the chance to experience that story at all. Well, fret not. Atlus knows Persona fans would very much like to see some of the old games revisited and given the remake treatment. In the Atlus Survey 2022 Special Program livestream that took place yesterday (thanks, Persona Central), the studio published several results from its consumer questionnaire that it sent to fans around the world back in May 2022. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake development on hold after director firings - report
    Though the news had leaked well ahead of time, the reveal of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake remains one of the biggest surprises in that one State of Play from last September. Since then, we've heard and seen nothing from developer Aspyr, which makes today's report all the more frustrating. According to Bloomberg [Paywall], the development of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake has been put on ice. The game has effectively been delayed indefinitely. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Microns staplade minneskretsar rymmer 2 TB på en fingernagel
    Microns nya 3D NAND staplar 232 lager för pyttesmå kretspaket med både ökad kapacitet och prestanda.  ( 6 min )
    Veckans fråga: Vilken layout har ditt tangentbord?
    QWERTY, Dvorak och Colemak är tre av många olika tangentbordslayouter. Den här veckan undrar vi enligt vilken stil dina bokstäver och tecken är placerade.
    Meta höjer priset på Quest 2
    Till följd av ökade tillverkningskostnader ökar det rekommenderade priset med motsvarande en tusenlapp för båda Quest 2-modeller från och med augusti.
    Backblaze redovisar hårddiskars livslängd
    Molnbolaget Backblaze tar en titt på livslängden sedan 2013. Hårddiskar med hög kapacitet klarar sig bättre de första åren, men de mindre är inte långt efter.
  • Open

    Untitled
    No content preview  ( 2 min )
  • Open

    6 Tips and Tools to Enhance Your Flatpak Experience in Linux
    If you love using Flatpak applications, here are a few tips, tools, and tweaks to make your Flatpak experience better and smoother.  ( 27 min )
  • Open

    Air Gap
    No content preview  ( 1 min )

  • Open

    A new Tactics Ogre: Reborn leak brings screenshots and a release date
    Tactics Ogre: Reborn will reportedly launch on November 11th, according to a new leak. The same leak also includes the first screenshots of Reborn, and a feature list that suggests Reborn is more than a straight port of 2010's Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Hard West 2 is so much more than supernatural cowboy XCOM
    Bank robberies are classic cowboy fare. Whether you're up to no good in Red Dead Redemption 2 or stealing from the rich to (sort of) give to the poor in the original Desperados, these temples of cash have long been the scenes of messy shootouts, upturned tables, and big, golden pay-outs. At least when your heist strategy's going according to plan, that is. In an exclusive demo for one of the later levels in Hard West 2, the upcoming sequel to the 2015 turn-based tactics original, Ice Code Games' chief technology officer Mateusz Pilski is starting to feel the heat a bit. The bank is well guarded, with at least half a dozen gunslingers staking out the doors at the front, and untold numbers waiting in hidden nooks and crannies further back. He takes a moment to consider his approach, but he begins his assault with confidence. "In any XCOM-like, when you see that many enemies and that much firepower, in that good a position, you think, okay, I'm fucked up," he tells me. "In just a second, I will show you how you can use Bravado to totally overturn the situation." Read more  ( 24 min )
    Meta Quest 2 VR headsets will cost $100 more starting next month
    Meta are increasing the price of all versions of the Meta Quest 2, their flagship wireless VR headset, by $100. They announced the decision in a post on the Oculus blog, saying that the increase in price would help them "continue to invest for the long term and keep driving the VR industry forward." Basically, Meta would like to lose less money now. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Aliens: Fireteam Elite season four adds crossplay and a new game mode
    Aliens: Fireteam Elite's season four kicks off today, and there are substantial new features to tempt you back to the co-op stand up fight. That includes crossplay, a new 'prestige' progression system that starts when players reach level 20, and a new game mode. Read more  ( 16 min )
    New Return To Monkey Island clip looks gorgeous, says I
    I will hoover up any crumb about Return To Monkey Island I can find, no matter how small, so 43 seconds of new footage feels practically like a full meal. That's the length of a new clip shared by Ron Gilbert on Twitter, and it shows Guybrush exploring a snowy town as well as how Return's dialogue trees look for, I think, the first time. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Pick up an RTX graphics card for £212 today
    The RTX 2060 is the most affordable RTX graphics card, making it your best shout for gaining the hardware to do real-time ray tracing and frame-rate-boosting DLSS without overpaying. This model debuted at £330, got more expensive over time as the worst of the GPU supply shortage hit, and was impossible to find below RRP even after its next-generation successor, the RTX 3060 launched two years later. Now the RTX 2060 has finally dipped in price, making it an ideal time to pick up what is still a powerful and feature-complete graphics card for 1080p or even 1440p gaming. You can pick up a compact EVGA RTX 2060 SC model for just £212 on Amazon right now, a 52% drop from its peak price and a fair deal for the level of performance on offer. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Pick up an AMD Ryzen 5800X3D for £384 at CCL today
    The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D is Team Red's fastest gaming processor in many titles, yet it costs far less than the slightly older 5950X and only a bit more than the 5900X. Reason being? You get fewer cores than those processors, and slower clock speeds, but dramatically increased cache - a trade-off that often provides a massive performance improvement for gaming. The 5800X3D was extremely hard to find at launch, with AMD's limited inventory being claimed as soon as the first reviews rolled in, but now we're starting to see better availability - and today, the first proper discounts. You can pick up the 5800X3D for £384 from CCL, thanks to a £15 off discount code: AFF15. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Torchlight Infinite’s open beta is heading to PC in October
    Free-to-play action RPG Torchlight Infinite is going into open beta on PC in October alongside iOS and Google Play, a spokesperson for the developers XD has told RPS. XD unveiled more of the game's PC version over the weekend, but at the time it was unclear when it would launching. Now we know it will be cross-play across PC and mobile this autumn. Check out some footage of Torchlight Infinite’s bosses in the trailer below. Read more  ( 16 min )
    You play this idle game by going for a real bike ride on Strava
    "Do you do Strava?" people often ask upon learning I like cycling. This is not the question they wish to ask. They are trying to feel out a stereotype, attempting to maintain the civil spirit of small talk by not saying aloud, "So are you a prick about cycling?" To broach the subject of stats, let's talk about Wren, an idle RPG powered by going for a real bike ride then connecting the game to your Strava or Fitbit. I got a puncture in the course of playing the game for this post, such is my dedication to you, reader dear. Read more  ( 19 min )
    2K have removed four WWE games from Steam
    Fancy a wrestle? Well, you’re more limited in choice now, because 2K have removed four of their past WWE games from sale on Steam, leaving just the recent WWE 2K22 and the arcade-style 2K Battlegrounds up. Console yourself by watching the 2K22 launch trailer below, as you weep into your tasselled and bespangled leotard. Read more  ( 17 min )
    World Of Warcraft: Wrath Of The Lich King Classic is out September 26th
    It’s not just Stranger Things that gets to star undead wizards this year. World Of Warcraft: Wrath Of The Lich King Classic releases on September 26th, Blizzard have revealed. Take a nostalgic trip back to Northrend to tackle the evil Lich King, Arthas Menethil, and check out what’s changed since the original. Watch the trailer below to refresh your memory from all the way back in 2008. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Rollerdrome's smooth, bullet time bloodsport is locked and loaded
    Bullet time has gone in and out of fashion, yet it remains accepted as cool by everyone who has ever knocked back a fistful of painkillers and murdered half of New York City. Rollerskating has gone in and out of fashion too, and anyone who's glanced at Instagram for the past couple of years will know which stage of the wave we're at. Rollerdrome fuses these two oscillating trends in the story of a rollerskating hotshot with a vendetta against human heads. I got a look at the first few levels and, so far, it's a flashy spin on the slow-mo gun fight. Read more  ( 18 min )
    The MultiVersus open beta kicks off today
    Free-to-play Warner Bros. brawler MultiVersus slams into open beta today at 5pm BST/6pm CEST/9am PST. We’ll be bringing you some thoughts later this week on whether MultiVersus is any good now it’s out of alpha but, for now, here’s a rundown of when and how you can play today. Check out the trailer below for a quick heads-up on how progression and rewards feature in the game. Read more  ( 18 min )
    Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak’s first free update seethes with new beasts to hunt
    Even more giant lumbering beasts are heading straight for Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak when the first of its free title updates lands in August. Expect two new rare species along with a fresh area to explore. Let your finely crafted trousers tremble with anticipatory terror while you watch the trailer below. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Ubisoft address rumours and say that Roller Champions isn't cancelled
    Rumours began to circulate over the weekend that Ubisoft were planning on cancelling their free-to-play fantasy sports game Roller Champions. The rumours grew to the point where Ubisoft have commented on them to say: nuh-uh. In a statement posted on Twitter, its developers say "Roller Champions isn’t getting cancelled, and Ubisoft fully supports it." Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Classic arrives on September 26
    Blizzard has announced World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Classic will be released in September. Starting September 26, the re-creation of WoW's second expansion will be released at no additional cost to all players with an active subscription. This expansion will be available on all World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic realms. In your effort to confront the Lich King, you will take a dangerous journey across the wintry forests and snowy peaks of Northrend, the single largest land mass ever added with a WoW expansion - that is, until Dragonflight is released. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Star Wars: Hunters sees another delay, now coming in 2023
    Star Wars: Hunters, the suad-based, online multiplayer game coming to Switch, has been delayed into next year. Originally slated to arrive in 2021 before being delayed to 2022, it will now release sometime in 2023. According to Zynga, the game is being delayed to ensure it meets high expectations. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak trailer takes a look at Lucent Nargacuga and the Forlorn Arena
    A look at the dangerous Lucent Nargacuga can be had in the latest video for Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak. Included in the free title update coming next month, you also get a look at the Forlorn Arena. Introduced in Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Lucent Nargacuga can turn invisible and perform a double tail slam. Its spikes can be extended with the shaking of its tail, causing venomous spikes to fly toward you. Read more  ( 15 min )
    I hated Elden Ring, but in trying to find something to love I accidentally platinumed it
    Judged solely on its sales numbers and the breathless praise across the internet, you’d think Elden Ring is a matchless masterpiece – impossible not to love. Not only is it From Software’s bestselling game but, at the time of writing, the bestselling game of 2022. I hated it. I think I’m the only one? Look at my PlayStation trophies, however, and you’ll spot the sheepish shine of Elden Ring’s platinum. Does that mean I have a story of redemption to share? One in which I go from hating Elden Ring to loving it? No. Read more  ( 19 min )
    PlayStation VR2 features a see-through view, broadcasting option, and cinematic mode
    Sony has provided some additional information on its PlayStation VR2 headset by detailing the new see-through feature and broadcasting option. According to Sony, with PS VR2 you can see your surroundings while wearing the headset due to the new see-through feature. This feature allows you to check where the Sense controllers are without taking the headset off. This is accomplished thanks to the embedded front cameras. To use the see-through feature, you can press the function button on the headset or use the Card in the Control Center to switch between viewing your surroundings, or viewing content on the headset. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Is 2022 the year we give these so-so games a chance? If there are more delays, it’ll have to be
    Before it even began, everyone was banking on 2022 being an all-time great. Many of the highly-anticipated games from the year before got pushed back to 2022, and when you consider the games already targeting this year – we were unquestionably in for one of the toughest Game of the Year showdowns. Who wins the Breath of the Wild 2 vs Elden Ring fight? Is Rocksteady’s new game after years of dormancy actually good? Will Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga come out this year? What’s the deal with God of War Ragnarok? Will Firaxis do the right thing and take cards out of Midnight Suns? Will the Stalker sequel stand up to the classic games? Will DICE turn Battlefield 2042 around? Those, and many others, were all questions on our collective minds around January. The point is: there was no way 2022 was going to have a shortage of big, tentpole games to play and talk about. A few short weeks later, however, reality began to take hold, and, one by one, our most anticipated games got pushed back to 2023 and beyond. Read more  ( 21 min )
    Stray's robot language has been decoded, here's what it means
    Stray is a cat simulator intertwined with a cyberpunk adventure, and as a result, the game is strewn with dialogue and signs that are, at first, illegible to most. Fortunately, B-12 is the perfect translator, however, Josh Wirtanen of Half-Glass Gaming spent some time decoding the language for all to understand. Josh started out by decoding the chapter titles, which are displayed both in English and in Stray's language, and he noted a few differences between translations. For example, the chapter 'The Slums' is actually named 'Home: Slums Part One' in the deciphered language. The same can be said for Sheet Music too. Across The Slums, there are eight pieces of Sheet Music to deliver to Morusque in exchange for a pretty cute badge. One of these pieces of music, as noted by Josh, is titled 'Come On' in the games language, but Morusque calls that same song 'Cool Down'. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Xenoblade Chronicles 3 review: A slow burn, but the best in the series so far
    For me, probably the most refreshing thing about modern Nintendo is its full-force embracing of the role-playing genre. No series represents this recently-adjusted stance more than Xenoblade – and its latest entry, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, proves that Nintendo’s recent interest and dedication to the genre is paying off dividends. In many ways, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 feels like the culmination of everything developer Monolith Soft has done up to this point. Anybody can appreciate the game – it’s simply a good one. But truly understanding the depth of appreciation it deserves is likely tied to understanding the history of the developer, from when its founders broke free of Square after finding them too obsessed with Final Fantasy over new ideas, through to its days with Bandai Namco, and finally its time as a subsidiary of Nintendo. Here, the developer works on both original games and as a support studio for more widely popular Nintendo titles. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 feels like the natural conclusion of all of those events – and it’s wonderful. This third mainline Xenoblade title is as feature-rich as all of its predecessors, if not more so. As a result, I could easily spend many words talking about the mechanics of the game – but it’ll probably suffice to say that it’s an interesting and engaging action RPG combat system that features familiar elements from Xenoblade 1, 2, and X alike. At first blush, it’s most similar to the second game, however. And that’s no bad thing. That game ruled – with the odd caveat – and so too does this sequel. Read more  ( 20 min )
    The Lord of the Rings: Gollum pushed back 'by a few months' for polish
    The Lord of the Rings: Gollum has been delayed. The action game was set for launch this September, but publisher Nacon announced that it won't hit this date. Surprsingly, Nacon didn't say how long the delay is going to be. The company simply said it will be "a few months", which is a little unusual. With that said, Nacon promised an update with a more solid release date in the near future. The reason for the delay is the very understandable need for polishing the game to make it the best version it can be. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Stray is better than God of War, according to Steam users
    Stray is the charming catventure from BlueTwelve Studios, and the adventurous indie has taken Steam by storm, to say the least. Not only did it top Steam's most-wishlisted the night before its release, but it's now technically become the best game on Steam in 2022, according to user reviews. Steam250, a platform for tracking and ranking Steam games, shows that Stray has now overtaken Sony Santa Monica's God of War in the process. It seems that everybody wants to be a cat. First reported on Twitter by SkillUp, Stray currently has 46,244 votes from Steam users and an overall score of 8.61, which simply means that 98% of people enjoyed the game. On the other hand, God of War only trails behind ever so slightly with 53,182 votes and an overall score of 8.56, which means 97% of users are fans of God of War. Read more  ( 16 min )
    PS5's best game is seemingly coming to Steam Deck
    It may be the worst kept secret in games this year: Returnal is coming to PC. We've seen evidence of the game already manifest in the form of screenshots taken on PC, and via the massive Nvidia leak that happened back in 2021. There's even a whole bit of the SteamDB database that lists the game as "Oregon", complete with various tags attached that describe the game perfectly. Today, there was yet another update to the game's SteamDB page that added a Steam Deck controller profile. What does that mean? The game is probably coming to PC, and it will be playable on Steam Deck (thanks, Resetera). Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Untitled
    Run on your two legs, as far as you can You’ll never escape the Renaissance Man He’ll only depart when he so desires After you’ve shown him a skill he admires  ( 3 min )
  • Open

    Please Be Patient Tee Available Now
    No content preview
    Driven
    No content preview
  • Open

    Wrath of the Lich King Classic återvänder 26 september
    Efter 14 år sedan expansionens ursprungliga släpp introduceras Wrath of the Lich King till World of Warcraft Classic.
    Nvidia påstås utrusta grafikkort med 48 GB GDDR6X
    En rejäl mängd grafikminne och en väldigt uppskruvad strömbudget står på agendan för Nvidia i senaste ryktessnurran på Twitter.  ( 6 min )
    Seagate förbereder 30 TB-hårddiskar med HAMR
    Andra generationens rymliga hårddiskar med HAMR planeras för bredare lansering till sommaren 2023. Konsumenter kan däremot få vänta längre.
    Snabbkoll: Platt eller välvd skärm?
    Välvda skärmar blir allt vanligare, särskilt i breda format. Har du en välvd variant på skrivbordet eller håller du dig till platta?
    Logitech Aurora kombinerar pasteller och kompakt format
    Spelfokuserade G-seriens nya familj inspireras av moln och norrsken och utrustas med Lightspeed- och Blue Voice-stöd.
    EK Water Blocks täljer guld med skinande kylarkomponenter
    Den med guldfingrar och vattenkylningsambitioner kan nu tacka och bocka. Med ny ytbehandling släpper EK Water Blocks lös guldruschen.
  • Open

    Raphaël Hertzog: Freexian’s report about Debian Long Term Support, June 2022
    Like each month, have a look at the work funded by Freexian’s Debian LTS offering. Debian project funding No any major updates on running projects. Two 1, 2 projects are in the pipeline now. Tryton project is in a review phase. Gradle projects is still fighting in work. In June, we put aside 2254 EUR to fund Debian projects. We’re looking forward to receive more projects from various Debian teams! Learn more about the rationale behind this initiative in this article. Debian LTS contributors In June, 15 contributors have been paid to work on Debian LTS, their reports are available: Abhijith PA did 14.00h (out of 14.00h assigned). Andreas Rönnquist did 14.50h (out of 14.50h assigned and 10.50h from previous period, thus carrying over 10.50h to the next month). Anton Gladky did 16.00h (out of…  ( 7 min )
    Michael Ablassmeier: Added remote capability to virtnbdbackup
    Latest virtnbdbackup version now supports backing up remote libvirt hosts, too. No installation on the hypervisor required anymore: virtnbdbackup -U qemu+ssh://usr@hypervisor/system -d vm1 -o /backup/vm1 Same applies for restore operations, other enhancements are: New backup mode auto which allows easy backup rotation. Option to freeze only specific filesystems within backed up domain. Remote backup via dedicated network: use --nbd-ip to bind the remote NDB service to an specific interface. If virtual machine requires additional files like specific UEFI/Kernel image, these are saved via SFTP from the remote host, too. Restore operation can now adjust domain config accordingly (and redefine it if desired). Next up: add TLS support for remote NBD connections.

  • Open

    American Truck Simulator heads to Montana on August 4th
    American Truck Simulator's tenth expansion is almost upon us. The freight simulator's Montana DLC was announced in November last year, and now developers SCS Software say it'll begin its journey on August 4th. There's a new trailer and a longer in-game video to watch below. Read more  ( 15 min )
    This RTX 3080 graphics card costs £660 - just £10 above RRP for a triple-fan card
    RTX 3080 graphics cards have hit a new low-water mark on Ebay, where a 10% off code (HOT10) has brought them to £660. This is the price for a Zotac Trinity model, but if you prefer Inno3D's designs then you can get one of their cards for just £10 more. Either way, you get an impressive level of performance for half the price that some were paying just a few months ago. Read more  ( 16 min )
    See through a cat's eyes using the Stray first-person mod
    I'd rather play almost any game in first-person rather than third-person. A game in which I'm a cat might be one of the few exceptions. If you feel differently, and you'd really like to get inside the head of the feline protagonist in Stray, then there's now a first-person mod to help you. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Pick up a fast Ryzen 5000 CPU for very little in the UK
    AMD's Ryzen 5000 processors are getting ever cheaper, with the mid-range Ryzen 5 5600 today crossing the £130 barrier for the first time. You can now pick up this super-fast gaming CPU for less than £130, while the more powerful 5600X costs £170 after a similar discount - some way below the last sale price we saw it at. To get the reduced price, you'll need to use code HOT10 at the checkout to knock 10% off the price. Higher-end Ryzen processors have also seen discounts in recent weeks. We spotted deals on the Ryzen 7 5800X and Ryzen 9 5900X using the same Ebay HOT10 code. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Lord Of The Rings: Gollum delayed by "a few months"
    Sneaky little hobbitses 'em up Lord Of The Rings: Gollum needs more time, say developers Daedalic. In a statement posted on Twitter earlier this evening, they say they're delaying the game by a few months "in order to deliver the best possible experience." Read more  ( 16 min )
    Super Auto Pets makes Monday the best day of my gaming week
    Every Monday, Super Auto Pets shakes its big bag of animals and draws a fresh selection for its 'Weekly Pack' mode. SAP is my favourite auto-battler, and offering a whole new meta every week has me coming back long after I would've stopped playing. I do enjoy the flow across a week as builds rise and fall on an accelerated timescale before everything is wiped clean and starts over on Monday. Which makes me wonder: what's the best day of your gaming week, reader dear? Read more  ( 17 min )
    The Last Of Us Part 1 remake should be out on PC “very soon” after its PlayStation debut, according to one dev
    Fed up with waiting for big-name console games to come out on PC after they’ve landed on current-gen consoles? Good job that a Naughty Dog artist has said that The Last Of Us Part 1 remake will be launching on our beige box of choice “very soon” after coming to PS5 on September 2nd then. Senior Environment Texture Artist Jonathan Benainous made the comment to a The Last Of Us fan who tweeted at him about the PC version. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Actor David Warner, Baldur’s Gate 2’s antagonist Jon Irenicus, has died aged 80
    British actor David Warner, who voiced dark wizard Jon Irenicus in classic CRPG Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows Of Amn, has died at the age of 80, the BBC reports. The actor also appeared in other games during the late 1990s and early 2000s, mostly on PC. You can hear Warner’s evocative performance as Irenicus in the trailer for Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition below. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Rick And Morty are heading to MultiVersus along with Space Jam's LeBron James
    Rick And Morty’s Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith are joining the roster of Warner Bros. brawler MultiVersus, but not before Space Jam basketballer LeBron James. LeBron is up first, so you can expect to play as him when the open beta begins on July 26th. Rick and Morty will be added during the game’s first season. Watch the LeBron reveal trailer below. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Screenshot Saturday Mondays: Flann O'Brien and a celebrity reality show
    Every weekend, indie devs show off current work on Twitter's #screenshotsaturday tag. And every Monday, I bring you a selection of these snaps and clips. This time, my eye has been caught by an adventure game inspired by Flann O'Briend, a celebrity reality show in a McMansion, livestreamed occult horror rituals, and more. Read more  ( 17 min )
    Funko Pops are teaming with the creative director of the original Lego Star Wars to make "AAA" games
    We all knew it would happen eventually. Plastic statue makers Funko have revealed at San Diego Comic-Con that their Funko Pop collectibles will star in games produced by relative newcomers 10.10 Games. However, 10.10 was started up by Jon Burton, who also founded Traveller’s Tales, the purveyor of Lego games. You can watch the very short announcement teaser trailer below. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Stray modders are adding their real cats to the game, and Garfield
    Less than a week after Stray launched, the smash-hit cyberpunk cat adventure has dozens of mods available with new looks for our little friend. My favourites are when modders make the game's cat look like their own real cat, and show me photos of that pretty cat. Then... you have some weirder options, like turning it into Garfield (in both realistic and cartoon forms) or a horrifying quadripedal version of GTA: San Andreas star CJ. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Turns out Stray’s cryptic code language isn’t all that hard to decipher
    Looking at signs in open-world catventure Stray makes me think I’m due for an eye-test. The code language in the game appears a lot like something that should be legible, but it’s not. At least, not straight away anyway. Luckily, these things don’t ever stay cryptic for long. HalfGlassGaming’s Josh Wirtanen has proffered a handy guide to how to read the chapter titles, signs and music sheets, with help from the growing Stray community. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Total War: Warhammer III cautiously builds upon a tried and true formula
    The latest entry in the Total War franchise was ported by Feral Interactive over to Linux last month. After spending a good chunk of time commanding armies and bringing chaos to the land, I have a few thoughts to share.  ( 13 min )
    DIMENSIONAL SLAUGHTER is an absolutely wild sounding fast-paced retro shooter
    Have the need for speed and love a good retro first-person shooter? DIMENSIONAL SLAUGHTER is what you should take a look at.  ( 5 min )
    hexceed is a free hexagonal Minesweeper out now for Linux
    Need a new relaxing puzzle game that doesn't require guesswork? Recently hexceed gained a Native Linux port.  ( 4 min )
    Free and open source multiplayer voxel RPG 'Veloren' version 0.13 is out
    Looking more promising than ever, the in-development free and open source RPG Veloren has a big new release out.  ( 5 min )
    Slay the Princess is an upcoming choice-driven psychological horror visual novel
    Black Tabby Games have just announced Slay the Princess. It's a choice-driven psychological horror visual novel / dating sim with dramatic branching, light RPG elements and hand-penciled art.  ( 4 min )
    GOG announces the major Find Your Indie Sale
    GOG has announced their big Find Your Indie Sale is now live with some new releases, more upcoming games and of course lots of discounts to take a look over.  ( 4 min )
    Puzzle game Pixross from Kenney is free for 24 hours
    Act fast if you want to get a good free puzzle game! Kenney is giving away Pixross on itch.io and it has Native Linux support.  ( 4 min )
    Reminder: Update your PC info for the next round of statistics updates
    This is the public once a month reminder to make sure your PC information is correct on your user profiles. A fresh batch of statistics is generated on the 1st of each month. Also a good reminder of our stats system for people who don't know about it.  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Reportage: Begagnade datorer får nya ägare genom Inrego
    En dator med ett par år på nacken är sällan uttjänt. Vi besöker Inrego, som berättar om processen att ge begagnade proffsdatorer ett nytt hem.
    Samsung först ut med 3 nanometer
    De första kretsarna tillverkade på Samsungs 3-nanometersteknik är officiellt levererade och bolaget når därmed mållinjen före både TSMC och Intel.
    Intel "Raptor Lake" presterar 20 procent bättre flertrådat med DDR5
    I Geekbench 5 letar sig siffror för Core i7 13700K ut, där den nya minnesstandarden ger en prestandaskjuts vid flertrådade laster.  ( 6 min )
    Svenska Epidemic Sound kräver Meta på 1,45 miljarder kronor
    Enligt musikbolaget har Meta integrerat och distribuerat plattformens innehåll på Facebook och Instagram utan licenser.  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Black Panther game reportedly in development, with EA as its publisher
    It sounds like EA is publishing a video game all about Black Panther, one that sees the player becoming a new version of the character. The report comes from Giant Bomb's Jeff Grubb during his Game Mess Mornings podcast, claiming that the Black Panther game is currently in early development. The internal name for the title is Project Rainier, and is being developed by a new studio led by former Monolith Productions studio head Kevin Stephens. The "big open world Black Panther Game," as described by Grubb will see the player taking up the mantle of the superhero after the previous incarnation dies. Apart from that, details are otherwise slim on the title, but it does sound like it will be a single-player title, a departure from EA's previous live service leanings. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Explore Hyrule with a friend thanks to this Breath of the Wild splitscreen mod
    Breath of the Wild is a pretty lonely game, but an upcoming splitscreen multiplayer mod makes it a little bit less so. The sequel to Breath of the Wild, whatever it might be called, is coming out in spring 2023 (hopefully). That's still about a year away, so all we have is the original game to keep us busy. But playing games by yourself can be a bit solitary in these modern times. Which is where modder Kirbymimi steps in to provide a splitscreen multiplayer mod that is entering into beta this week. Footage of the mod has been shared online by YouTuber and modder Waikuteru, and it honestly looks really good so far. The mod shows two Links taking on the overrun Hyrule castle, and doesn't seem to run into any trouble performance wise. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Sonic Frontiers will be playable for the first time at EGX 2022
    Sonic Frontiers will be present and playable by the public at EGX this year! The controversial entry into the legendary SEGA IP has previously split the gaming community into two camps of lovers and haters following its initial gameplay reveal. What better way to make your mind up on the title than to head down to London and try it out yourself. Sonic Frontiers is the first every fully open world Sonic game, allowing players to dash freely between different locations in the overworld rather than having them progress through a series of levels. While 3D Sonic games have allowed those in control to explore a range of vast areas (looking at you, Sonic 06), this pushes that experience to a vaster extent. As for EGX, it’s set to start September 22 - 25 at the ExCeL centre in London. If you want to figure out what all the noise is about surrounding this game, this is a great opportunity to get your hands on it yourself. It’s also the first time the public will have a chance to test it out, so Sonic megafans eager to be among the first to control Sonic on his new adventure have ample reason to go. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Juventus is back in FIFA 23 - Piemonte Calcio substituted for good
    Juventus FC is back in FIFA 23 following a 3 year absence, EA Sports has revealed. Since FIFA 20, the Old Lady of Turin has appeared as ‘Piemonte Calcio’ due to licensing agreements with FIFA’s cross-town rival, eFootball (formerly Pro Evolution Soccer, RIP). However, Juventus has signed a new exclusive multi-year contract with EA to appear in their games, in another twist in a rivalry almost as great as the Derby Della Mole between Juve and Torino. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Update: Roller Champions isn't being scrapped after all!
    Update: The Roller Champions official Twitter account has come out with a statement rejecting the rumour that the game will be shutting down after Season 3. You can read it in full, embedded below: Roller Champions, the free-to-play roller skating action game released by Ubisoft earlier this year, may be on the chopping block soon if Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb is to be believed. If true, this means that news of the game’s demise would have come only two months following its release. Speaking on the Xbox Era podcast, the journalist from Giant Bomb claims to have recieved information which he then revealed to his peers while on the topic of Ubisoft changes and cancellations. This nonchalant reveal was followed by brief praise for the game, mixed with the shared sentiment that it wasn’t quite exciting enough to keep their interest. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Love it or hate it, Funko is entering the AAA game space
    Funko has decided to enter the world of AAA video game development, as it has announced a partnership with 10.10 Games. Love 'em or hate 'em, Funko and its line of Pop! figures are here to stay, and now we can expect to see them starring in some kind of AAA video game. Announced at San Diego Comic-Con, Funko is collaborating with 10. 10 Games, a studio founded by British developer Jon Burton last year. The two will be making "triple-a video games together," starting off with an action platformer. "Creating iconic products that emotionally connect fans to their favourite fandoms is critical to each product portfolio decision," said Funko CEO Andrew Perlmutter. "“By partnering with 10:10 Games and utilising the best creators in the business, we will have the talent to deliver games that reflect Funko’s unique look and feel across its lines and varied products." Read more  ( 15 min )
    Tactics Ogre: Reborn can't stop leaking, as release date and details appear online
    Tactics Ogre: Reborn, a remastered version of the remake of the original game, has had a number of details and screenshots leak online. While this isn't the first leak for Tactics Ogre: Reborn, it is the most in depth one. As reported by Gematsu, details leaked through the PlayStation focused website PS Deals, which even potentially confirmed a release date of November 11. And the title will supposedly come to both PS4 and PS5 when it does launch, though other platforms haven't been ruled out yet. "Based on the 2010 release, the game features improved graphics and sound, as well as updated game design, bringing to life a new Tactics Ogre that remains true to its roots," reads the description of the game. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Halo Infinite's co-op campaign won't have online matchmaking, even after leaving beta
    Halo Infinite's co-op campaign has been eagerly anticipated for a while now, with the beta arriving just last week, but to the dismay of many fans, the new mode will not feature any online matchmaking. This will also persist even after the mode leaves beta, meaning players must recruit friends of their own to play alongside. This campaign update is currently in beta for Xbox Insiders. The full update, which includes online co-op and split-screen play, is set to fully launch in August of this year. Online co-op play does not extend to online matchmaking, however, meaning that if you're trying to play co-op online, you'll need to recruit friends to play with yourself. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Monster Hunter Paradise isn't actually the next game in the series
    Over the weekend, it looked like the name of the next game in the Monster Hunter series had leaked from a fairly unusual source: Discord. The title is apparently called Monster Hunter Paradise, according to the leak - but it turned out not to be the case. The leak originates from Discord's developer mode, which one Twitter user was messing with before they stumbled upon a number of events for upcoming games, including seemingly the next Monster Hunter. As spotted by VGC, most Discord events they dug up have placeholder names, except one in particular. The original tweet, which has since been deleted, included screenshots of a game called Monster Hunter Paradise on Discord's backend. Read more  ( 16 min )
    MultiVersus has over 60,000 PC players and it's not even out yet
    Multiversus - the free-to-play platform fighter from Player First games and Warner Bros - looks like it’s setting up for an incredibly popular soft launch. Even before the open beta releases on July 26, the game has reached a peak PC player count of over 60,000 on Steam alone (via SteamDB). While not an official Valve tool, SteamDB can be a good measure of rough player popularity, if taken with a pinch of salt. With recorded user numbers reaching this all time peak even before waves of eager players are let in, on just one of the three launch platforms, it’s easy to see this title becoming one of the big industry victors this season. Those who have been playing during previous betas have something to look forward too on launch, as a collection of new characters are joining the roster! This includes American basketball player Lebron James who’ll be popping into the game alongside the open beta, and Rick & Morty who’ll both be in the game during season 1. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Stray mod lets you play as America's laziest cat, Garfield
    Over a week ago, if you'd of mentioned ginger cats to me, my first thought would've been Garfield. Now, however, my first thought is of a very different, unnamed ginger kitty from Stray, but that doesn't mean Garfield doesn't still hold a special place in my heart. One modder, who clearly has similar interests, has made it so that Garfield finds himself astray in the unknown world of The Slums, Midtown, and beyond. We've seen keen modders flock to Annapurna's most successful launch and turn the protagonist of Stray into a dog, and even into CJ from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Obviously, Garfield is perhaps the most fitting of all the character mods we've seen so far. If you're one of the many players that are playing Stray via PC, you can also play as Garfield to your heart's content. Modder, Chris Robino, has made the mod publicly available on Nexus Mods. Read more  ( 15 min )
  • Open

    AMD Radeon 680M Graphics Are A Great Upgrade With RDNA2, Excellent On Linux
    Last week when posting my initial Linux benchmarks of the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U performance (and also looking at the AMD Rembrandt Windows vs. Linux speed), there were two main areas to get excited about with these AMD Zen 3+ SoCs: nice power efficiency improvements across many real-world workloads and the graphics upgrade with the integrated Radeon 680M. In this article are more tests of the Radoen 680M graphics looking at the integrated graphics speed-up with RDNA2 finally replacing Vega as a big upgrade and also how this compares to the Intel Alder Lake P Xe Graphics performance for Linux laptops.  ( 5 min )
  • Open

    Koodo is an All-in-one Open Source eBook Reader App for Linux
    Koodo is an open source, cross-platform eBook reader application with tons of features to improve your reading experience.  ( 26 min )
  • Open

    Bits from Debian: DebConf22 closes in Prizren and DebConf23 dates announced
    On Sunday 24 July 2022, the annual Debian Developers and Contributors Conference came to a close. Hosting 260 attendees from 38 different countries over a combined 91 event talks, discussion sessions, Birds of a Feather (BoF) gatherings, workshops, and activities, DebConf22 was a large success. The conference was preceded by the annual DebCamp held 10 July to 16 July which focused on individual work and team sprints for in-person collaboration towards developing Debian. In particular, this year there have been sprints to advance development of Mobian/Debian on mobile, reproducible builds and Python in Debian, and a BootCamp for newcomers, to get introduced to Debian and have some hands-on experience with using it and contributing to the community. The actual Debian Developers Conference s…  ( 4 min )
  • Open

    Deepfakes
    No content preview  ( 1 min )

  • Open

    Nyhetsquiz vecka 29 2022: Intel Arc och påkostade hörlurar
    Intel Arc-uppgifterna duggar tätt och utgör därför en stor del av veckans nyhetsquiz. Hur bra koll har du på Arc och andra tekniknyheter?  ( 5 min )
    Google-utvecklaren bakom påstående om självmedveten AI får sparken
    Utvecklaren som menar att det språkspecifika AI-systemet Lamda har känslor har gjort flera regelövertramp och går nu därför från avstängd till arbetslös.  ( 6 min )
    Söndagsmatiné: Under huven på JPEG-algoritmen
    Det utbredda formatet komprimerar bilder till en bråkdel av originalstorleken utan att fullständigt förstöra dem. Matematik och snillrika lösning ligger bakom.
  • Open

    Huge Neopets hack may have compromised over 69 million accounts, hacker wants $100,000 for the data
    A huge Neopets hack has potentially compromised tens of millions of accounts, as revealed earlier this week. As reported by Polygon, more than 69 million Neopets accounts may have had their customer data stolen in a major data breach. A Neopets representative confirmed through Discord that the company is "actively working" on fixing the issue, and later on the official forum and Twitter released a statement addressing the breach. "Neopets recently became aware that customer data may have been stolen," reads the first tweet. "We immediately launched an investigation assisted by a leading forensics firm. We are also engaging law enforcement and enhancing the protections for our systems and our user data." Read more  ( 15 min )
    Guerrilla Games is killing Killzone by shutting down multiplayer servers for two games
    All things must come to an end, this time the multiplayer servers for a couple of Killzone titles, and RIGS: Mechanized Combat League. Earlier this week, Guerrilla announced on Twitter that online servers would be shutting down for a couple of Killzone games. "On 12 August 2022, online servers for Killzone: Mercenary, Killzone Shadow Fall (including Intercept Mode) and RIGS: Mechanized Combat League will shut down. Online features (including online multiplayer modes) will cease on that date," reads the tweet. But single player modes will still be available. RIGS is the most recent of the three titles, having release in 2016, and requires the use of a PSVR headset. So considering the age of all three of them, and the lattermost needing what will soon become an outdated piece of hardware, it isn't particularly surprising that any of them are shutting down. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Immortals Fenyx Rising followup is reportedly a Polynesian inspired spin-off
    The followup to Immortals Fenyx Rising is reportedly going to be a Polynesian inspired spin-off. Another week, another drip from the leakiest faucet, sorry, journalist around, Jeff Grubb, as spotted by VGC. This time, it's about that supposed Immortal Fenyx Rising sequel that was reported on earlier this year. Except according to Grubb, it isn't actually a full on sequel that's in the works, but a spin-off. Speaking on the Games Mess Decides podcast, Grubb said "Ubisoft Quebec's sequel to Immortals Fenyx Rising is not a proper sequel. It's more of a spin-off. The production name of the game is called Oxygen." Read more  ( 15 min )
    This indie horror Steam game boldly challenges you to refund it, if you can beat it in two hours
    Steam's refund system lets you refund a game if you've played less than two hours, and Refund Me If You Can challenges you to do just that. While there is a nuanced conversation to be had about Steam's refund system, at the very least two hours is a good amount of time to get a feel for most games. Most developers would generally prefer their game to not be refunded if they can help it, but Refund Me If You Can from Sungame Studio actively encourages you to… if you can beat it in time. Refund Me If You Can's premise is simple: "One maze, one monster tracking you down, will you have the courage and dexterity to escape this nightmare in less than two hours?" You play as someone called Sarah, and only you (the player) can wake her up from a nightmare she's having. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Zenless Zone Zero is getting its first 'Tuning Test' next month
    Zenless Zone Zero, the next presumably hit-gacha game from the developers of Genshin Impact, has had its beta test confirmed for this August. Hoyoverse has put out a notice confirming the exact time and date of Zenless Zone Zero's Tuning Test (say that five times fast). Those that want to test out the game can signup on the game's main page, and if you get in you can expect to try it out starting from August 5, 3am BST/ 4am CEST. Not the friendliest of start times to those in the UK and the EU, but you take what you can get. The test end time hasn't been set in stone just yet though, so presumably you'll have a bit of time to really get a feel for the game if you're lucky enough to be picked for the beta. Make sure you do so soon if you are interested though, as signups close next week, July 27. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Dragon Ball: The Breakers, or anime Dead by Daylight, is out this October
    Fans of Dead by Daylight that think it just isn't anime enough might be happy to know that Dragon Ball: The Breakers is officially out in October. Revealed last year, Dragon Ball: The Breakers (weird title) is an asymmetrical multiplayer game quite similar to Dead by Daylight, only within the world of Dragon Ball. And it's officially out October 14, bringing one of the most iconic villains from the series, Frieza, along with it. In the game's previous network test, only Cell was available to play as in terms of villains, with Earth as the main stage to play on. With the latest trailer showing off Frieza, Planet Namek also looks to be another stage the you will be able to survive or hunt on. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Fall Guys datamine shows some speedy beans in a Sonic-themed stage
    Fall Guys is clearly desperate to go fast, as a datamine has shown off a Sonic the Hedgehog-themed stage in action. Back in 2020, Sonic made his first appearance in the bean-themed battle royale with a skin of the fastest hedgehog alive. So far any collaborations Fall Guys has had with other properties has been relegated to cosmetic, but recently fans have spotted what appears to be an entire Sonic-themed stage coming to the game. The screenshot of the Sonic stage was included in the 'next up' screen, most likely as a mistake, but obviously this had fans wondering what this meant. And now, dataminer FGPancake has managed to find the actual stage in the game, as well as load it in and play around in it. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Respawn accidentally revealed its next Apex Legends character
    Respawn Entertainment seems to have accidentally shown off the next Apex Legends character joining the roster. You might remember that back in March there was quite a big Apex Legends leak showing nine potential new characters, including the most recent addition Newcastle. Now it seems that Respawn itself has accidentally shown a brief preview of the next character joining the game, advertising a potential upcoming Stories from the Outlands. If you want to wait for the official reveal though, maybe skip this one. As reported by Dot Esports, one fan spotted this preview in the Apex client yesterday (July 23), inviting players to watch a Stories from the Outland episode titled Survive. "There's a new installment of the Stories from the Outlands!" reads the description. "Watch survive and meet the new Legend joining the Games in Apex Legends: Hunted, coming August 9!" Read more  ( 15 min )
  • Open

    Steinar H. Gunderson: AV1 live streaming: Exploring SVT-AV1 rate control
    I'm looking into AV1 live streaming these days; it's still very early, but it looks like enough of the required parts may finally align, and it seems it's the way I'll have to go to get to that next quality level. (Specifically, I'd like to go from 720p60 to 1080p60 for sports, and it seems this is hard to do under H.264 as-is without making pretty big concessions in terms of artifacts/smudges, or else jack up the bitrate so much that clients will start having viewing problems.) After some brief testing, it seems SVT-AV1 is the obvious choice; if you've got the cores, it produces pretty good-looking 10-bit AV1 using less CPU time than x264 veryfast (!), possibly mostly due to better parallelization. But information about using it for live streaming was hard to find, and asking online turne…  ( 6 min )
  • Open

    Earth
    earth comic See also: Squires.nz | Instagram | Twitter The post Earth appeared first on Moonbeard.  ( 1 min )
  • Open

    How to Install Pamac GUI Package Manager in Arch Linux
    Pamac is an awesome GUI-based package manager from the developers of Manjaro Linux. Here's how you can get Pamac in Arch Linux.  ( 24 min )
  • Open

    The Sunday Papers
    Sundays are for going for a walk to your nearest big Tesco. Before you set out, let's read this week's best writing about games (and game related things). Read more  ( 17 min )
    This free fangame blends Hotline Miami with Team Fortress 2
    Hotline Miami inspired a lot of topdown, ultraviolent copycats, most of which failed to replicate its propulsive action. Midnight Mercenaries does it better than most - while also being a free fangame that mixes that Hotline Miami structure with characters and weaponry from Team Fortress 2. Read more  ( 16 min )

  • Open

    Ex-Zodiac is heavily Star Fox-inspired and out in early access now
    Last year, the demo for Ex-Zodiac offered a sugar rush of Star Fox-inspired checkboard floors, glowing weak spots, and hibber-jibber radio chatter. Now Ex-Zodiac has entered early access, and it looks like it's got more going on than straight homage. Fox McCloud never rode a motorbike, for one. Read more  ( 15 min )
    Hytale devs are redeveloping its engine, say no release in 2023
    The developers of blocky survival and construction game Hytale say they've made the decision to "redevelop" its engine. In a lengthy development update, they say the switch should make it easier to patch and maintain the game after release, among other benefits. They also show off some fancy creator tools, and say Hytale won't release in 2023. Read more  ( 16 min )
    Marvel's Midnight Suns new trailer explains how to make Spider-Man from a deck of cards
    I've been experiencing Marvel fatigue for, oh, around seven years now. To compensate, I decided to watch Marvel's Midnight Suns latest trailer while pretending it wasn't about Marvel superheroes, but just a Firaxis-made tactics game with character classes who have wildly divergent skillsets. The video focuses on the spider-powered class - and heck, it does look pretty cool. Read more  ( 16 min )
  • Open

    Wouter Verhelst: Planet Grep now running PtLink
    Almost 2 decades ago, Planet Debian was created using the "planetplanet" RSS aggregator. A short while later, I created Planet Grep using the same software. Over the years, the blog aggregator landscape has changed a bit. First of all, planetplanet was abandoned, forked into Planet Venus, and then abandoned again. Second, the world of blogging (aka the "blogosphere") has disappeared much, and the more modern world uses things like "Social Networks", etc, making blogs less relevant these days. A blog aggregator community site is still useful, however, and so I've never taken Planet Grep down, even though over the years the number of blogs that was carried on Planet Grep has been reducing. In the past almost 20 years, I've just run Planet Grep on my personal server, upgrading its Debian rele…  ( 2 min )
  • Open

    What are you playing this weekend?
    It's that time again. Two days of doing something other than work. On my end, for the next two days, I will devote my time to cleaning out the spare room, which is filled almost to the ceiling with boxes and containers I have yet to unpack from the move two years ago this September. Procrastination at its finest. At some point this weekend, a certain 10-month-old velociraptor named Morty (seen below) will start "lessons" on gentlemanlike behavior. Such lessons include: staying out of one's personal space, not "climbing" on the car or people, and ceasing being a major jackass to the new puppy next door. Read more  ( 17 min )
  • Open

    Top 10 Best Music Players for Linux in 2022
    It isn't rocket science to play music on Linux, but you should have a great experience with a good music player!  ( 27 min )
  • Open

    Untitled
    Support my work @ patreon.com/shencomix!  ( 2 min )

  • Open

    The Humble Deck Builder Bundle is live, here's what works on Linux & Steam Deck
    The Humble Deck Builder Bundle has gone live and it's another that offers some pretty interesting choices, so here's what to expect on Linux desktop and Steam Deck.  ( 7 min )
  • Open

    Aigars Mahinovs: Debconf 22 photos
    Finally after a long break, the in-person Debconf is a thing again, this time Debconf 22 is happening in Prizren, Kosovo. And it has been my pleasure to again be here and take lots of pictures of the event and of the surroundings. The photos can be found in this Google Photo shared album and also on this git-lfs share. But the main photographic delight, as always is the DebConf 22 Group Photo. And here it is!!! You can also see it in: on Google Photos on git-lfs
  • Open

    Monster
    No content preview
  • Open

    Lost in Transmission
    a comic about a ruff ride  ( 1 min )
  • Open

    Fixing the “Pending Update of Firefox snap” Error in Ubuntu
    Keeping on seeing a persistent "pending update of Firefox snap" message that doesn't go away even if you restart the browser or the Ubuntu system? Here's what you should do.  ( 25 min )

  • Open

    Untitled
    No content preview  ( 2 min )
2022-08-19T13:43:26.344Z osmosfeed 1.15.1